The audacious and grandly entertaining new film from multi-award winning director Pablo Larraín, Neruda is a lavishly-mounted reimagining of the Nobel Prize-winning poet’s pursuit into political exile, and notably marks his reunion with No star Gael García Bernal.
It’s 1948, and the Cold War has reached Chile. In Congress, Neruda (Luis Gnecco) accuses the left-wing government of betraying the Communist Party and is swiftly impeached. The bumbling Police prefect Oscar Peluchonneau (Bernal) is appointed to arrest him.
Neruda tries to flee the country with his wife Delia, but they are forced into hiding. Yet the poet is somehow inspired by the dramatic events of his new life as a fugitive, and uses this struggle as an opportunity to reinvent his work and life, leaving clues for his nemesis designed to make their game of catand- mouse more dangerous, more intimate. Indeed in this ingeniously-crafted tale of the persecuted poet and his implacable adversary, Neruda discovers his own heroic possibilities: a chance to become both a symbol for liberty, and a literary legend.
Gripping, funny and ingeniously conceived, Neruda is undoubtedly Larrain’s finest accomplishment to date, and not to be missed.
