Post Mortem

Pablo Larraín's film, set during the coup of 1973. Mario works at the forensic institute, a clerk who types up autopsy reports. He is drawn to Nancy across the street; she dances in a revue theatre and her family is on the left. Then the coup happens. The film shows it not in the street but at Mario's workplace: the number of bodies suddenly rises, the corridors fill, the reports cannot be kept up with. Mario carries on doing the same job. The idea is in that carrying on. Mario takes no political side; he does the work he is given and produces no response to what is happening. Larraín's question is how an order stays in working condition, and who keeps it running. When Nancy disappears Mario goes looking for her, and the final section shows where that search arrives. Alfredo Castro plays Mario, a recurring name in Larraín's films. It is the second part of his trilogy about the Pinochet period. The photography imitates the film stock of the period; the colours are washed out and the framing is deliberately uncomfortable. A hard work for anyone who likes Latin American cinema and political narrative. Before you watch, know this: the film is extremely cold and the ending is disturbing; the narrative offers explanation or relief nowhere.