neruda

In 1948 the Chilean poet and communist activist Pablo Neruda had to go into hiding to avoid arrest. Larrain’s film is loosely based on the story of how the beloved poet escaped capture, evading a pompous, bumbling policeman. Sometimes it’s a detective movie, sometimes surreal; sometimes it resembles film noir, at other times a western. Neruda weaves together scenes of great beauty and bathos, between the words of the poet, the Andean snows and the plodding Inspector Peluchonneau.