Post mortem

Colour, 35 mm
Chile, Germany, Mexico, 2010, 98 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

The Chile capital, 1973. An odd creature, Mario Cornejo works in a morgue keeping records: he compiles autopsy reports prepared by the coroner. And just as the military coup is taking place, he falls for a cabaret dancer named Nancy. The morgue is inundated with hundreds of corpses, and along with all the absurdity and chaos, Mario’s private world is directly affected by revolutionary events that will go down in the history of the country. In the words of the director: "This is the story of an apparently insignificant and charmless couple. It’s Chile’s story during the military coup. Mario’s ideal of conquering the impossible love of a woman is also the ideal of a nation trying to conquer a noble but unattainable political model (socialism). All this amid the bodies of those who died as a result of military ideals imposed with no care for their cost or consequences.”

About the director

Pablo Larraín (b. 1976, Santiago, Chile) graduated in audiovisual communications at UNIACC University. He is a founding member of Fabula, a production company producing feature films, television programs, and commercials. In 2005 he directed his first feature film Fugue (Fuga), which was also performed on stage in 2006. His second feature, Tony Manero, had its world premiere at Cannes. His third film, Post mortem (2010), premiered last year at Venice.