La Noche de los Lápices (1986)

Night of the Pencils (Spanish: La noche de los lápices) is a 1986 Argentine historical drama film directed by Héctor Olivera and written by Olivera and Daniel Kon. It is based on the non-fiction book by María Seoane and Héctor Ruiz Núñez. It stars Alejo García Pintos, Vita Escardó, Leonardo Sbaraglia, José María Monje, Pablo Machado, Adriana Salonia and Héctor Bidonde.

The film, based on the actual events recorded in history as the "Night of the pencils" (La noche de los lápices), tells the story of seven students who, after protesting for lower bus fares in the city of La Plata, were abducted in September 1976, during Argentina's last dictatorship (1976 - 1983), and subsequently disappeared. Only one student survived to tell what happened.

Synopsis

During a time of economic and political unrest and State-sponsored terrorism in Argentina in the mid-1970s, the students want reduced bus fares, so they take to the streets and protest in support of the boleto estudiantil: the students' ticket. At first, under Isabel Martínez de Perón's government they succeed, but their protests draw hostile attention from the ensuing military regime led by Jorge Rafael Videla, which overthrows Perón on March 24, 1976.

Acteurs