Uruguay has announced that Álvaro Brechner’s historic thriller A Twelve-Year Night / La noche de 12 años will be the South American country’s candidate to the 91st edition of the Academy Awards in the foreign-language film category. Starring Antonio de la Torre, Chino Darín, Alfonso Tort and César Troncoso, the film recently had its world premiere in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival.
Set during one autumn night in 1973 when Uruguay was ruled by a military dictatorship, A Twelve-Year Night follows a group of Tupamaro prisoners that are taken from their prison cells in a secret military operation. The order is precise: “As we can’t kill them, let’s drive them mad”. The three men will remain in solitary confinement for twelve years. Among them is Pepe Mújica—later to become president of Uruguay.
This marks the third time that Uruguay sends a film by Álvaro Brechner to the Oscars after Bad Day to Go Fishing in 2009, and Mr. Kaplan in 2014. The country has not earned an Oscar nomination.
