Estética y estrategias narrativas del cine de terror y el thriller en Crónica de una fuga de Adrián Caetano

Abstract

Adrián Caetano’s film Crónica de una fuga (2006) tells the story of Claudio Tamburrini’s (Rodrigo de la Serna) imprisonment in a clandestine detention center known as “Atila” and his successful escape with other three prisoners from this terrible place. Based on a true story, this film sticks out in the treatment of Argentina’s so-called “Dirty War” (1976-1983), on the one hand since it manages to show the horror of these years almost without making use of graphic violence. On the other, because instead of talking about an issue, as it was usual in the films that were shot during the transition to democracy, it emphasizes the staging and the use of the necessary cinematic resources of genre cinema to tell a history in a particular socio-historical context. The aim of this study is thus to demonstrate that in this film the horror and suspense inherent in the story result in a combination of aesthetic and narrative strategies of cinematic horror and thriller. An interpretation on the reasons why it is nowadays possible to approach such a touchy subject in such a way will close the analysis.