The movie was banned from theaters one day short of release and a prolonged trial ensued over eight years, emotionally devastating
Jorge Polaco and his fellow workmen. It has gained notoriety as being the first-and only-film censored by a democratic government since the end of Argentina's last military dictatorship in 1983.
Polaco lobbied for many years for a release of Kindergarten in public theaters. Finally, a restored copy of the film was released on the 2010 Mar del Plata Film Festival for the first time since its shooting over 20 years before.
The film sparked controversy due to its perceived mistreatment of child actors (the protagonist spends most of his screen-time naked), as well as a number of censored scenes, including the one in which
Graciela Borges enters a bathtub half-naked and tries to hug the child who was bathing in it and another one in which
Cecilia Etchegaray performs an unsimulated fellatio to
Arturo Puig.
