Es herrscht Ruhe im Land (1976)

In Las Piedras, a small town in South America, political prisoners are incarcerated one day in barracks that have been converted into a prison. Mr. Paselli rents a room at the Parra boarding house and wants to visit his daughter, Maria Angelica, who is being held there as a political prisoner. After he confides in the boarding-house owner, the whole town eventually finds out. Together with the owner’s son and a doctor, he organizes a relief committee for the prisoners. At first, the regime tolerates the visits, until some of the prisoners manage to escape from the prison with the help of smuggled weapons and uniforms. The military promptly seizes power in the town, shoots the prisoners left behind, and declares a state of emergency. At the funeral, a mass demonstration takes place, with the residents openly expressing their protest. Bloody street fighting and a wave of arrests follow. The local football stadium is then converted into a prison camp. After his entire family has already been interned, Grandpa Parra voluntarily goes to the camp. Thus peace returns to the country—a country now without inhabitants.