Valentin, a 9-year-old boy living with his grandmother in late-1960s Buenos Aires, believes his family has problems that only he can solve. The youngster dreams of being reunited with his mother, who's separated from Valentin's abusive father.
A dramatized approach to the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) through the recreation of some of his works and the staging of various aspects of his thought and his life.
In a dystopian society, a government uses therapy and dreams to recover, or perhaps implant, memories to those lacking them.
A new patient mysteriously appears in a psychiatric ward. He claims to come from another planet to study humans and their behavior. The alien is gentle but criticizes humans for their harsh treatment of each other. The assigned psychiatrist is himself unhappy, and affected by the patient's insight. But he is ordered to treat the patient according to institutional procedure.
The Night of the Pencils was a series of kidnappings and forced disappearances, followed by the torture, rape, and murder of a number of young students during the last Argentine dictatorship (known as the National Reorganization Process). The kidnappings took place over the course of several days beginning on September 16, 1976.
Argentina's turbulent political history is an uncredited but clearly present protagonist in this rather slow-paced story about Ramon (Oscar Martinez) and his search for his brother Pedro in the capital city of Buenos Aires. Pedro has disappeared at a time of upheaval, after a military junta takes over Argentina in 1976, killing thousands of leftists and dissidents. Unlike many others, Ramon's father has political ties that matter, but that may not change Pedro's fate, which could be death -- or like some who have been tortured, worse than death. This film was nominated for a Golden Bear award at the 1985 Berlin Film Festival.