Post Mortem (2010)

Synopsis

In the midst of Pinochet’s 1973 military coup in Chile, bodies pile up in the morgue. Anyone protesting the way corpses are treated is regarded as an enemy.

Mortuary worker Mario says nothing. Instead, he tries to get closer to his neighbor, cabaret dancer Nancy, but she suddenly disappears.



Cast: Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers, Jaime Vadell, Amparo Noguera, Marcelo Alonso, Marcial Tagle, Santiago Graffigna, Ernesto Malbrán, Aldo Parodi, Adriano Castillo


The film competed in the 67th Venice International Film Festival, Antofagasta Film Festival, Havana Film Festival and the Guadalajara International Film Festival. The film's main character Mario Cornejo is based on a real person with the same name.

The film is well-received by critics and considered further proof of Larraín’s talent, previously noted in Tony Manero. It received four stars from both The Guardian, which called it “an eerie portrait of a disturbing time” and Time Out, which praised the “humorously unconventional framings, expressively washed-out colour tones and mysterious low-key performances” that bring together “human comedy and historical tragedy to unique, and surprisingly emotional, effect.”

The New York Times critic A. O. Scott wrote that “the achievement of Post Mortem is to take rigorous and unsentimental measure of the unpleasantness”. Post Mortem has also been popular on the Rotten Tomatoes public film reviews website, where it has an 88% approval rating based on 34 reviews, with an average score of 7.08/10

Read about this film

Country: Chile | Mexico| Germany
Language: Spanish
Color: Color
Runtime: 98 min.