Programmer's Note

An ode to romantic love and literature, the second feature from Chile’s Cristián Jiménez is a whimsical and impressively eloquent film about a young man’s experience with women and books, told over two different stages in his life. Based on the successful novel of the same name by Chilean author Alejandro Zambra, Bonsái takes us back and forth in time as it traces the emotional journey of a struggling writer.

Awkward and shy, 20-year-old Julio (Diego Noguera) is studying literature in Valdivia, southern Chile. There he finds Emilia (Natalia Galgani), a punkish fellow student, and becomes a fixture at the apartment she shares with her best friend. Julio and Emilia spend most of their time in her single bed, reading to each other or making love. From the outset, Julio’s narration informs us there is no happy ending for these two, but we aren’t told why their relationship doesn’t last.

Eight years later in Santiago, Julio is offered a job transcribing the work of famed Chilean novelist Gazmuri (Hugo Medina), known for writing his books in longhand. When the job falls through, he decides to write a manuscript of his own rather than tell the truth to his neighbour and casual lover Blanca (Trinidad González), passing it off as Gazmuri’s work. He ends up telling the story of his love with Emilia, and it becomes as much an exorcism as a well-meaning deception, tied to Julio’s own idealism and disillusionment.

Without relying on sentimentality, director Jiménez sincerely captures the unique nature of first love. Unencumbered by responsibility, Julio and Emilia need only figure out what book to take out of the library. Bonsái also offers compelling statements about the ways in which we can express feelings indirectly: it is through Julio’s initial lie to Blanca that he can open up intimate communication about his true self. Jiménez’s light, humorous tone accurately portrays the intricate nature of modern loneliness through an intermingling of life, love and literature.