SYNOPSIS

Neruda. A glorious mix of history and imagination, NERUDA is the enthralling new film from multi award-winning director Pablo Larraín (No, Jackie), a lavishly mounted and grandly entertaining depiction of the manhunt for exiled Chilean poet and politician Pablo Neruda.

It’s 1948, and the Cold War has reached Chile. Following the President’s outlawing of communism, Neruda (played by Luis Gnecco, bearing a remarkable likeness) and his artist wife Delia (Mercedes Morán) are forced into hiding. Beloved by the populace, they slip underground and are pursued by incompetent, vainglorious police inspector Oscar Peluchonneau (the superb Gael Garcia Bernal), hoping to make a name for himself by capturing the country’s most infamous fugitive.

Whilst life on the run holds little charm for the cultured and hedonistic Neruda, he uses the opportunity to reinvent his work and life, leaving clues for his pursuer designed to make their game of cat-and-mouse even more dangerous and thrilling. Thwarting Peluchonneau at every turn, it’s almost as if the detective is the man Neruda would have written to chase himself…

Blending visual grandeur and literary wit, NERUDA is a beguiling reinvention of the ‘standard’ cinematic biography. Playfully confounding expectations at every turn, the film offers a startling rumination on the split between the person and persona, the man and the artist.

Gripping, funny and ingeniously conceived, this is undoubtedly Larrain’s finest achievement to date.


TRAILER


RELEASE DATE

April 07, 2017

DIRECTOR

Pablo Larraín

WRITER

Guillermo Calderón

COMPANY

Palace Films

GENRE

Biography, Crime, Drama

CERT

15

RUNTIME

107 minutes

IMAGES