Paris April 19th 2016
LARRAIN RETURNS TO DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT FOR “NERUDA” WORLD PREMIERE
WITH STARS LUIS GNECCO, GAEL GARCIA BERNAL AND MERCEDES MORAN
Gael García Bernal as Oscar Peluchonneau in Pablo Larraín’s NERUDA
Luis Gnecco as Pablo Neruda, Pablo Derqui as Victor Pey and Mercedes Morán as Delia del Carril in Pablo Larraín’s NERUDA
Chilean director Pablo Larraín’s sixth feature, NERUDA, a noir-infused reimagining of the Nobel Prize-winning poet and politician’s struggle with the state, will have its world premiere next month in Cannes at the Directors’ Fortnight.
With a screenplay by Chilean playwright Guillermo Calderon, (Sundance 2012 World Cinema Jury Prize winner for Violeta Went to Heaven), NERUDA reunites Pablo Larraín with many of the team from his Oscar®-nominee No, including Gael García Bernal, Luis Gnecco, and regular acting collaborators Alfredo Castro, Alejandro Goic, Jaime Vadell and Marcelo Alonso, as well as Roberto Farías, who starred in Larraín’s 2015 Berlin Grand Jury Prize winner and Golden Globe nominee The Club. Mercedes Morán and Pablo Derquí round out the cast.
It’s 1948 and the Cold War has reached Chile. In congress, Senator Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) accuses the government of betraying the Communist Party and is swiftly impeached by President Gonzalez Videla (Alfredo Castro). Police Prefect Oscar Peluchonneau (Gael García Bernal) is assigned to arrest the poet.
Neruda tries to flee the country with his wife, the painter Delia del Carril (Mercedes Morán), but they are forced into hiding. Inspired by the dramatic events of his new life as a fugitive, Neruda writes his epic collection of poems, Canto General. Meanwhile, in Europe, the legend of the poet hounded by the policeman grows, and artists led by Pablo Picasso clamor for Neruda’s freedom.
Neruda, however, sees this struggle with his nemesis Peluchonneau as an opportunity to reinvent himself.
He plays with the inspector, leaving clues designed to make their game of cat-and-mouse more dangerous, more intimate. In this story of a persecuted poet and his implacable adversary, Neruda recognizes his own heroic possibilities: a chance to become both a symbol for liberty and a literary legend.
Director Pablo Larraín
«We are thrilled to be at this Fortnight!” says director Pablo Larraín. “We are spirited and happy to be back at such an important place, both for the film and for us. We imagined and made a film about a novel that we would have liked for Neruda to read. We made a fabulous epic story, literary and foul-mouthed, an interpretation of the genius’s poems, a creative persecution. We had a great time making it, and we now have the honor of sharing it”.
NERUDA is an international co-production of Chile’s Fabula, France’s Funny Balloons and Reborn Production, Spain’s Setembro Cine, Argentina’s AZ Films, and U.S.-based Participant Media. The film is produced by Juan de Dios Larraín, Peter Danner, Renan Artukmaç, Alejandro Zito, Ignacio Rey and Fernanda Del Nido, and executive produced by Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King for Participant and Marc Simoncini for Reborn.
NERUDA is the sixth feature film from director Pablo Larraín, following Fuga (2005), Tony Manero (2007 Cannes Film Festival, Directors’ Fortnight), Post Mortem (2008 Venice Film Festival, In Competition), No (2012 Cannes Film Festival, Directors’ Fortnight), and The Club (2015 Berlin Film Festival, In Competition). He also directed Profugos, HBO’s first ever series produced in Chile, in 2010 with a second series aired in 2013. He is a founding partner of the production company Fabula through which Larraín has acted as producer on feature films including Sebastián Silva’s Nasty Baby (2015 Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals) and Sebastián Lelio’s Gloria (Silver Bear winner at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival).
NERUDA will be distributed in Chile by Twentieth Century Fox. Wild Bunch Distribution will release the film in France with international sales via Funny Balloons which has been involved in all of Larraín’s films since Tony Manero; NERUDA is the ninth feature film collaboration between Fabula and Funny Balloons and marks Participant’s second collaboration with Fabula, after Pablo Larraín’s Oscar®-nominee No.
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Photos by Diego Araya © 2016 - Fabula - AZ Films - Funny Balloons - Setembro Cine - All Rights Reserved