Last Days of the Victim

Adolfo Aristarain's 1982 Argentine film follows a hitman who takes orders from clients whose identity he does not know. Mendizabal watches his target for weeks, learns his habits and prepares a flawless plan. Then he realises he is himself part of a larger arrangement. The film was made in the last year of the military dictatorship and had to work under censorship. No institution is named; but the fact that who gives orders to whom is never explained, the people who disappear and the presence of an invisible authority were read as a direct account of the period. Federico Luppi's performance is measured and cold. Aristarain knows genre cinema well, and the tension comes from the patience of the surveillance scenes. It is counted among the best examples of the crime genre in Argentine cinema. Who it's for: those who like Latin American noir and thrillers with political subtext. Who it's not for: viewers expecting an explanatory ending; the film never says who stands behind whom.