I watched this absolutely gruesome film sixteen years ago now and I still remember it. I know that there were many films made about Chilia and Argentina dictatorship regimes, but unfortunately most of them did not reach France. Only a batch were available. This one is far better than COLONIA, speaking of Chilia and made for wide audiences, with the happy end which silly sissies crave for. I don't. How can you forget those unbearable scenes of torture whilst torturers' colleagues play ping pong in the backyard?...Of course this film, GARAGE OLIMPO is not destined for wide audiences, not for the squeamish. If you have not seen it yet, run for it. It is available on DVD.

My friend who is a psychiatrist working with torture survivors had experienced his first panic attack while watching this movie.I did not. But I use the nick "garageolympo" since I saw the film.The film explains what to expect from military regimes, blood, misery, lies and death.I recommend who love this movie: Noche de los lápices, La (1986) (night of pencils) and may be "missing" and "Z" by Costa Gavras.I live in a country in which people experience torture and pressure, So I liked this film to tell our anonymous story.

This is a powerful, hard-hitting film, depicting the experience of a 'desaparecida' in Argentina at the end of the 1970s. Garage Olimpo examines how 18-year-old Maria copes with a sustained period of imprisonment and torture. One of the most disturbing elements of the film is its exploration of the bond and unexpected power plays that develop between Maria and one of her captors, Felix. Director Marco Bechis deals with the complexity of human relations unflinchingly - asking the viewer to consider the real nature of a range of human responses and experiences: love, hate, attraction, power, sex, sadism, kindness and the almost visceral need for basic physical and emotional contact. He typically heightens the impact of his subject matter through understatement and contrast. This can be seen in his use of sound for example, in which he sets up a ping-pong game or relentlessly upbeat song on the radio as a backdrop to scenes of implied violence. Bechis similarly avoids any direct shots of violence, using the captors' chillingly matter-of-fact attitude or the painstakingly slow build-up to the door closing on a torture room to let the viewers' imagination run riot. This approach is echoed by the cinematography, which after Maria's arrest is largely confined to the undergound network of cells and torture rooms where the prisoners are kept. Bechis uses this framework of restricted vision and heightened sound to reflect and convey the prisoners' experience. This is an unforgettable, disturbing and beautiful film, that sticks with the viewer long after the credits have rolled.

It's a film that leaves pretty speechless. The director weaves subtle poetry into a story that is especially shocking because we all know that events that seem so impossible were (and are) tragically true. It's also interesting to read about Bechis' approach and working method (i.e. studio recreation of the "garage" rather than working in a location, use of "real" props, etc.).