Post Mortem (2010 film)

Post Mortem is a 2010 Chilean film directed by Pablo Larraín and set during the 1973 military coup that overthrew former President Salvador Allende, inaugurating the 17-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. 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.

Mario (Alfredo Castro) is a pathologist's assistant in Santiago who is responsible for noting down the pathologist's commentary during the post mortem. The job has given him a grey, deathlike appearance. Previously, in the days of the military coup, Mario became involved in a love affair with a show dancer, Nancy (Antonia Zegers), who lives across the street with her younger brother David and her father, a communist and Allende supporter. On the morning of September 11, the date of the coup, a military raid takes place in Nancy’s house. Her brother and father are arrested. Mario then begins a frantic search for Nancy, who has disappeared, all the while having to endure pressure from the military who want to hide the real cause of death of the bodies piling up in the morgue.

The film has a projection aspect ratio of 2.66:1, which is ultra-wide and very unusual. One reviewer observes that "Post Mortem’s muted color scheme reflects the drab ‘70s world that only adds insult to injury for Pinochet’s trampled victims." With director of photography Sergio Armstrong, Larrain shot the film on Russian Lomo lenses, the type used in the 1970s by Andrei Tarkovsky and other Russian filmmakers. The lenses are intended for 35mm film, but Larrain shot on 16mm film achieving a look he describes as "very special". Larraín describes the process of lighting the film as follows: