Garage Olimpo

Set in Buenos Aires during Argentina's military dictatorship, Garage Olimpo centres on María, a young woman who teaches reading and writing in a poor neighbourhood and belongs to an underground organisation opposing the regime. She lives with her mother Diana in a large, fading house where rooms are rented out; one tenant is Félix, a shy young man who claims to work as a night watchman in a garage and is in love with her. One morning plainclothes soldiers seize María in front of her mother, and she is taken to a clandestine detention and torture centre known as Garage Olimpo. There the officer in charge assigns her interrogation to one of his most trusted men, and María recognises Félix.

The film is Marco Bechis's first feature as director, followed chronologically by Back to Buenos Aires. Bechis wrote the screenplay with Lara Fremder and produced alongside Amedeo Pagani and Enrique Piñeyro. Antonella Costa plays María, Carlos Echevarría plays Félix, Enrique Piñeyro plays Tigre, and Dominique Sanda appears as Diana. The production was a joint effort between Argentina, Italy and France, and the film runs 98 minutes.

Released in 1999, it holds a rating of 7.3 out of 10 on IMDb from around 3,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.9 from a much smaller number of votes.