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The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971, a year after his personal friend and fellow Marxist Salvador Allende had been elected President of Chile with his active support. Two years later Allende was overthrown and murdered, and Neruda himself died very shortly afterwards. His funeral helped to focus the world's attention on the atrocities of the Pinochet junta.
Twenty years earlier his chances of the prize were slimmer. The Cold War was beginning to bite and Neruda found himself in exile on a small Italian island, though in this film which draws on a fictionalised account of that experience, he is brought notice of nomination by Mario, the simple youth who is Neruda's personal postman - only Neruda receives letters; only Neruda can read and write.
When Mario falls in love with a local barmaid, a poet is just what he needs to help him do his courting, and an unlikely friendship grows between the two men as Mario's courtship and political corruption both flourish. When Neruda is recalled from exile, only Mario refuses to accept that the poet has forgotten about the little fishing community. Years later, when Neruda returns... But let's not go there.
A film that is intensely moving in it's simplicity. I felt for Mario in his awkward shyness at first, and rejoiced as he grew. But he learns a great deal more than a love of poetry and a zest for political action. Everything about the film is greater than the sum of its parts.
