One of the most overlooked features thus far in 2016, The Club, finally arrived earlier this year in the United States, and Pablo Larraín is already back with his next film. Premiering at Cannes in the Directors’ Fortnight section, Neruda is a biopic of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet, here played by Luis Gnecco. His No star Gael García Bernal (who just got the lead in Jonás Cuarón‘s Zorro reboot Z) plays Inspector Oscar Peluchoneau, who led the police manhunt for the title character.
Ahead of a premiere shortly, the first international trailer has now landed, which unfortunately doesn’t have subtitles yet. Nonetheless, one can get a sense of a perhaps unexpected playful vibe when compared to the logline, along with Larraín’s striking, crisp visuals. Check it out below with a hat tip to Keyframe for the highly-anticipated film also starring Alfredo Castro, Mercedes Moran, Michael Silva, and Pablo Derqui, and return for our review.
Update: See a subtitled version below.
It’s 1948 and the Cold War has reached Chile. In congress, Senator Pablo Neruda accuses the government of betrayal and is swiftly impeached by President Videla. Police Prefect Óscar Peluchonneau is assigned to arrest the poet. Neruda tries to flee the country with his wife Delia del Carril, but they are forced into hiding. In the struggle with his nemesis Peluchonneau, Neruda sees an opportunity to reinvent himself. He plays with the Prefect, leaving clues designed to make their game of cat-and-mouse more dangerous, more intimate. In this story of persecution, Neruda recognizes his own heroic possibilities: a chance to become both a symbol for liberty and a literary legend.
Neruda premieres at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight section.