| Director | Pablo Larraín |
|---|---|
| Box office | $1.9 million |
In 1946, Chile's president Gabriel González Videla wins the election with Communist support but later betrays them, banning the party and ordering mass arrests. Senator Pablo Neruda, a former ambassador and renowned poet, condemns the repression, endangering himself. He and his wife Delia attempt to flee to Argentina through the mountains but are turned back at the border and forced into hiding.
Oscar Peluchonneau, a young policeman, is assigned to capture Neruda. To understand his target, Peluchonneau studies Neruda's life and poetry. Meanwhile, Neruda makes surprise appearances, leaving poetry volumes to mobilize resistance, creating a cat-and-mouse game where Peluchonneau is always one step behind. As the hunt intensifies, Neruda's friends arrange for smugglers to take him over the border on horseback.
While Delia is captured and interrogated by Peluchonneau. She asserts that in their story, the policeman is secondary, a remark that unsettles Peluchonneau and undermines his confidence, suggesting Neruda's legacy will endure while Peluchonneau will fade into fiction.
As Neruda's group traverses snowy forests toward the border, Peluchonneau pursues but cannot catch them. He dies on a snowy mountaintop, abandoned by his indigenous guides. Neruda later finds his body. Peluchonneau's grip on reality ends as he becomes part of the fiction he once pursued. Neruda escapes to Paris, where he is welcomed by Pablo Picasso and becomes a media sensation. At a press conference, Neruda mentions Peluchonneau, allowing him a lasting memory.