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A brilliantly disquieting Chilean political drama from the director of Tony Manero. Watching it, James Oliver senses that Luis Bunuel would approve.

Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain's previous picture, Tony Manero, was one of the most electrifying discoveries of recent years; a brilliant coal-black comedy that explored his country's troubled recent history. Developing the themes of his earlier film, Post Mortem establishes Larrain as one of the most exciting new directors around.

It's set in swingin' Santiago in 1973; Mario Cornejo (Alfredo Castro) works as an assistant in the mortuary. A bloodless fellow, he none the less conceives a romance with Nancy (Zegars), an ex-dancer. But then Pinochet launches his coup and Mario unexpectedly finds himself playing a small, but crucial, part in history.

Larrain shoots proceedings in long, often static takes that build a disquieting, morbid atmosphere; the horror is coldly clinical and, thus, much more disturbing. Integral to all this is a superb performance by Castro as Mario; an apparently bland bureaucrat happy to be assimilated by the junta, he's at once laughable and terrifying. Indeed, this masterful film's keen sense of the absurd only serves to amplify its moral outrage. You sense Luis Bunuel would approve.

 

James Oliver on 13th December 2011
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