Burning Patience

It's Chile, 1969, as BURNING PATIENCE begins on a rural island called Isla Negra. Mario declares he's giving up the family fishing business. A sensitive young man, he feels poetry welling up in him but it isn't released until he becomes the local postman whose main job is to deliver all the mail arriving for a new resident, the famed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The fictional plot derives from a novel and two earlier films, the most recent the 1994 Il Postino. Open-hearted Mario befriends Neruda and learns about metaphors, which Neruda uses frequently in sensual love poems. Mario announces to Neruda that he's in love and is compelled to write on his own. His great inspiration is the lovely local waitress Beatriz (Vivianne Dietz). They share an instant mutual admiration and chemistry as their slow courtship advances. Unfortunately, her mother, who gave birth at age 17 and was abandoned by the father, warns that the lust overwhelming her daughter will only cause trouble. She sends the girl away and creates a distance that elicits a passionate correspondence between the two. The influential Neruda goes off to campaign for socialist presidential candidate Salvador Allende. The backdrop is the struggle between workers in Chile and a government unresponsive to their needs. Mario is left to find a way into Beatriz's heart and her mother's confidence.