Writer-director Pablo Larraín, best known for his trilogy “Jackie,” “Spencer” and “Maria,” ventures into Argentina for the first time in “My Sad Dead” (“Mis muertos tristes”), based on three stories by Argentinean writer Mariana Enriquez. It stars some of Argentina’s brightest talent, led by Mercedes Moran, Dolores Fonzi, Alejandra Flechner and Carolina Álvarez. Not unlike his 2023 feature “The Count” (“El Conde”), “My Sad Dead” enters into genre territory.
The Netflix four-part miniseries produced by Larraín’s btoher Juan de Dioas Larraón and their label Fabula, was made into a feature version of nearly three hours to vie for the Golden Shell in San Sebastian’s official competition. The story follows Ema (Moran), a recently retired doctor who can see and hear the dead. She is haunted by her mother’s death and her own unfinished business.
When her niece Julie arrives and three teenagers are murdered in the violence-ridden neighborhood of Piedrabuena, something strange begins to spread, tearing apart the fragile boundary between the living and the dead. What was once Ema’s burden becomes everyone’s nightmare. The dead are making themselves heard – and no one can escape their ghosts.
In an interview with Variety in San Sebastian, Larraín and Enriquez held forth on their adaptation, which they co-wrote with Chilean playwright Guillermo Calderón, a coscribe on “The Club,” “Neruda” and “El Conde,” and Anastasia Ayazi (“Patagonia”) Mariana, what inspired you to write these stories? Are they purely sourced from your imagination or inspired by events and people you know? Enriquez: Like Ema, my mother is a doctor who has worked in a public hospital, and the neighborhood in the book is based on a real neighborhood.
It’s different, but quite similar to my idea of the periphery, outside the city, kind of a forgotten place. Many of the violent situations are real situations, distorted a bit to make them more or less fictional. Of course, the woman who can speak to the dead is fictional, but it’s not that far removed from reality.
But these stories of women or people who can speak to the dead – do you actually know people who see them? Enriquez: My aunt used to see my grandmother everywhere. My mother is very peculiar, she smells things, which is very weird.
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