Following Garage Olimpo (1999), director Marco Bechis returns once again to the dark era of Argentina’s military dictatorship. Mariano, a physician who went into exile in Italy thirty years ago, returns to Buenos Aires to testify at the trial of the former military officers who kidnapped him. Now, he must confront not only the perpetrators standing in court, but also the survivor’s guilt he has carried for decades and, above all, the ghosts that haunted his youth. Having experienced the dictatorship firsthand, the director relentlessly gazes upon the terror and trauma of those days Without explicitly showing torture scenes. Adriano Giannini’s compelling performance vividly embodies an inner wound that has never truly healed. Serving as both an intimate testimony and a confession of the era known as the “Dirty War” (Guerra Sucia), Back to Buenos Aires is one of the year’s most powerful masterpieces, delving deep into the indelible scars left by the dictatorship upon the human soul. (SEO Seunghee)