Closer Look: Salvador Allende’s Legacy Explored in Pablo Larrain’s Post Mortem

Competing in Venice and showing at NYFF (where it is one among a pair of film offerings from Chile), here are a set of stills for Pablo Larrain’s Post Mortem. Such as his last feature Tony Manero, Larrain once again uses the violent backdrop of Allende era to work in certain thematic and atmospheric details. The synopsis below gives us a better idea of what these pics represent.

NYFF synopsis: A literal and figurative dissection of his country’s turbulent contemporary history, Chilean director Pablo Larraín’s third feature is another highly original, darkly comic mix of the personal and the political from the director of Tony Manero (NYFF 2008). Set in 1973 in the last days of Salvador Allende’s presidency, the film stars Tony Manero lead Alfredo Castro (here sporting a mane of long, whitish-blond hair) as Mario, an autopsy recorder who frequents a seedy burlesque hall where his neighbor, Nancy, is one of the dancers. Infatuated from afar, he finally works up the courage to visit her dressing room, and finds his affections if not exactly returned, at least entertained. As Mario haphazardly tries to woo Nancy away from her Popular Front boyfriend, Chile descends into chaos around them, until Mario finds himself an unwitting first-person witness to the grim face of violent social change.