Chronicle of an Escape (Spanish: Crónica de una fuga), also known as Buenos Aires, 1977, is a 2006 Argentine historical drama film directed by Israel Adrián Caetano.

[1] On 23 November 1977, during Argentina's last civil-military dictatorship, Claudio Tamburrini (Rodrigo de la Serna), a goalie for a minor league soccer team in Buenos Aires, is abducted by members of the Argentine secret military police.

After a night hiding in the suburbs, the four men get ahold of some money and clothes and part ways; three of them leave the country, including Tamburrini, whom years later writes the book in which the film is based on.

[citation needed] The production was quite difficult according to Caetano, who stated that "the filming was an endless challenge: shooting almost entirely within four walls, trusting the outcome to the acting, the framing, and the light.

He believes that Chronicle of an Escape will give American audiences "an icky feeling" when they view the "fact-based Argentine story through the stylized lens of a horror film.

She wrote, "[F]orceful acting plays a key role in giving the story credibility, with De La Serna and Casero lighting the way."

"[8] Critic Clark Collis liked the film and wrote, "Chronicle of an Escape's premise may remind you of Sly Stallone's enjoyably preposterous 1981 soccer/incarceration flick, Victory, but this true-story-based movie scores in a different way...The result is blessed with great performances; director Israel Adrián Caetano lets events speak — and plead and weep — for themselves.

Although the events it depicts happened 30 years ago in South America, it inevitably triggers anguished thoughts of Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and extraordinary rendition...

Unlike the other captives, he does not belong to a subversive group; midway through the film he discovers to his fury that an acquaintance and fellow prisoner, while under torture, lied and named him as the owner of a mimeograph machine that printed antigovernment leaflets.

"[10] Critic Jan Stuart echoed Stephen Holden and wrote, "If there is anything more disturbing than any of the tortures glimpsed in the film, it is turning on the evening news afterward and being reminded that the use of such hardball practices are still, in the minds of some, a subject for debate.