A Twelve-Year Night

Set in Uruguay in 1973, A Twelve-Year Night follows three captured members of the Tupamaro guerrilla movement after a military dictatorship takes power. Taken from their cells in a secret operation, they are held in solitary confinement under a regime designed to break them mentally rather than execute them. Isolated in tiny cells, hooded, bound and deprived of basic needs, the men must find a way to hold on to their identities across twelve years of imprisonment. One of them is José Mujica, later president of Uruguay. The film is based on true events.

Álvaro Brechner directed and wrote the screenplay, and the production was shared between Argentina, Spain and Uruguay. The cast is led by Antonio de la Torre as Mujica, with Chino Darín as Mauricio Rosencof, Alfonso Tort as Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, César Troncoso and Soledad Villamil. Brechner's second feature, it precedes his 2026 film Fiesta Pagana.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.5 from around 12,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.3 from roughly 311 votes, showing a steady response across both audiences. A critics' rating of 7.4 from 17 reviews places it close to the audience scores. Across a 122-minute runtime the film stays with the three men and the routines of their confinement.