Neruda

Synopsis

“There may be no greater ambassador for Chile’s complex historical identity than Pablo Larraín, the writer-director whose diverse filmography explores his country’s struggles from a variety of inventive directions. While “Tony Manero” and “Post Mortem” offered bleak, subversive allegorical statements on life under dictatorship, the Oscar-nominated “No” explored the climax of the Pinochet dictatorship in thrillingly immediate terms, while “The Club” took a minimalist approach to examining disgraced members of Catholic Church. Now comes his most ambitious storytelling effort to date, “Neruda,” which begins as a straightforward period piece before evolving into something far more intriguing: a meditation on the country’s mythological relationship to heroes and villains told from two sides at once. (…) It’s a constantly surprising consolidation of the projects leading up to it. (…) For Larraín, “Neruda” provides a reasonable cap to the initial stage of his career as he gears up for his first English-language effort, the Natalie Portman-starring Jackie Onasis biopic “Jackie” “Neruda” turns all of the filmmaker’s preceding statements on his native land into a unified whole.” (Eric Kohn, IndieWire)

Around The World in 14 Films 2016, presented by Pegah Ferydoni