Neruda

Neruda is a 2016 internationally co-produced biographical drama film directed by Pablo Larraín. Mixing history and fiction, the film shows the dramatic events of the suppression of Communists in Chile in 1948 and how the poet, diplomat, politician and Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda had to go on the run, eventually escaping on horseback over the Andes. Plot In 1946, Chile's president Gabriel González Videla wins the election with the support of the Communists, but later turns against them, banning the party and ordering mass arrests. Senator Pablo Neruda, a former ambassador and renowned poet, speaks out against the repression, putting himself in danger. With his wife Delia, he attempts to flee to Argentina through the mountains, but they are turned back at the border and forced to go into hiding. Óscar Peluchonneau, a young policeman, is tasked with hunting down Neruda. To catch him, Peluchonneau believes he needs to know him, so he studies Neruda's life and poetry. Meanwhile, Neruda makes surprise appearances, leaving volumes of his poetry with people to mobilize resistance. A game of cat and mouse ensues, with Peluchonneau always a step behind. When the hunt becomes too close, Neruda's friends arrange for smugglers to take him over the border on horseback. Delia stays behind and is interrogated by Peluchonneau. She tells him that every story has a primary character, and in this story, the cop is secondary. This remark unnerves Peluchonneau, who is never certain of his inner identity. Delia destroys his confidence by saying that Neruda, with his poetry and political commitment, is reality and will endure, but Peluchonneau is merely a fiction.