Today Network Releasing announced that Neruda, the sixth feature of Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Pablo Larraín, will be released in UK cinemas from 9th December 2016. It is also ‘In Competition’ at the 60th BFI London Film Festival where it will have its UK Premiere on the 14th and 15th October 2016.

Neruda celebrated its World Premiere at Cannes in the lauded Directors’ Fortnight section to critical acclaim. Written by Guillermo Calderón, Neruda stars Gael García Bernal (Y Tu Mamá También, The Motorcycle Diaries, No), Chile’s Luis Gnecco (from HBO’s Profugos) and Mercedes Morán (The Motorcycle Diaries), and is produced by Juan de Dios Larraín.

It’s 1948 and the Cold War has reached Chile. In congress, Senator Pablo Neruda accuses the government of betrayal and is swiftly impeached by President Videla. Police Prefect Óscar Peluchonneau is assigned to arrest the poet. Neruda tries to flee the country with his wife Delia del Carril, but they are forced into hiding. In the struggle with his nemesis Peluchonneau, Neruda sees an opportunity to reinvent himself. He plays with the Prefect, leaving clues designed to make their game of cat-and-mouse more dangerous, more intimate. In this story of persecution, Neruda recognises his own heroic possibilities: a chance to become both a symbol for liberty and a literary legend.

Larraín’s previous feature The Club also received critical acclaim at last year’s BFI London Film Festival, which won the Berlinale Grand Jury Prize Silver Bear and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes. Larraín is best known for No, which went on to be nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film.

MD of Network Releasing, Tim Beddows said: “Network is once again thrilled to be distributing Pablo Larraín’s next cinematic masterpiece Neruda. This is his most spectacular outing yet and we are looking forward to presenting it to UK audiences.”

Neruda will screen at the BFI London Film Festival:

8.45pm, Friday 14th October 2016, Embankment Garden Cinema

2.45pm, Saturday 15th October 2016, Embankment Garden Cinema