El lado oscuro

A confrontation between two men in a huis clos situation. One man is a lawyer, in the service of the so-called Comissión Sábato and in charge of the investigation of torture. The other man is Valdés, a notorious Argentine bully, a torture instrument of the Argentine junta. El ludo oscuro records the two men soberly and austerely, sometimes alone and sometimes together, in a largely dark decor. There are hardly any props, only a few patches of light penetrate the darkness. Everything revolves around the two men and their account. A superb feat of acting, a tour de force by Huo Daniel Gorbán (as Valdés) and Héctor Alterio (as the lawyer).îThe real protagonist in El ludo oscuro is language; the dialogues and monologues. The dark atmosphere of the film (which looks like an intense registration of grim and cruel theatre) makes the situation in the torture room tangible. The shocking texts are based on very accurate transcriptions of authentic interrogations in the Valdés.Two worlds clash in the film; that of the cursing and very physical bully, with his terrifying logic and morality and that of the refined, elderly, fatherly and erudite lawyer who tries to analyse the cruelty. The conversations and monologues sometimes have the character of a confession and sometimes that of a psychoanalytical session, occasionally interrupted by a jump in time, in which Valdés or the lawyer look back on the confrontation.Gonzalo Suárez was born in 1934 in Oviedo. He studied French philology in Madrid, was member of various theatre groups and in 1963 he embarked on a literary career which he has pursued alongside making films. Suárez has also made several television series.