Bonsai

This romantic drama is based on Alejandro Zambra’s award-winning novel about a young writer who turns to his first romance for creative inspiration. Screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section in 2011, the second feature from Chilean director Cristián Jiménez draws upon Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past in its delicate, witty and poignant exploration of the relationship between life and fiction, and the search for authenticity.Julio, an aspiring but unproductive young writer, meets with Gazmuri, an established author seeking someone to type up the manuscript of his latest novel. Julio doesn’t get the job, but in an attempt to save face he leads his neighbour and lover, Blanca, to believe that he is still transcribing Gazmuri’s novel. In fact, Julio is writing his own version of the novel, entitled ‘Bonsai‘.In need of a plot, he recalls his relationship with Emilia, a bright fellow literature student who died eight years earlier; and as his memories of their youthful romance are shaped and refined, the writing of the novel unlocks a sequence of flashbacks in which reality and fiction, past and present intertwine...