Thursday, March 22, 6:30 pm, UNC Charlotte main campus, McKnight Hall, Cone Center
Pablo Larraín, Argentina, Chile, France, Spain, 2016 / 107 min.
Spanish with English subtitles
The Spanish Film Club series was made possible with the support of Pragda, SPAIN arts & culture and the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain. This showing was also made possible with the support of the UNC Charlotte Chancellor’s Diversity Challenge Fund.
Introduction by Dr. Gregory Weeks, Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, UNC Charlotte. Discussion will follow screening.
It’s 1948 and the Cold War has reached Chile. In congress, Senator Pablo Neruda accuses the government of betraying the Communist Party and is swiftly impeached by President Gonzalez Videla. Police Prefect Oscar Peluchonneau is assigned to arrest the poet. Neruda tries to flee the country with his wife, the painter Delia del Carril, 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.
