''The Postman''; the title used for the original US release[5]) is a 1994 comedy-drama film co-written by and starring Massimo Troisi and directed by English filmmaker Michael Radford.

Based on the 1985 novel Ardiente paciencia (English translation: "Burning Patience") by Antonio Skármeta, itself adapted from a 1983 film written and directed by Skármeta, the film tells a fictional story in which the real life Chilean poet Pablo Neruda forms a friendship with a simple Procida postman (Troisi) who learns to love poetry.

The day after principal photography ended, he suffered a fatal heart attack, and the film was completed and released posthumously.

Composer Luis Bacalov won the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score, and the film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.

In 1950, Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet, is exiled to a small island in Italy for political reasons.

Meanwhile, Mario falls in love with a beautiful young lady, Beatrice Russo, who works in her aunt's village café.

Despite the aunt's strong disapproval of Mario, because of his sensual poetry[clarification needed] (which turns out to be largely stolen from Neruda), Beatrice responds favourably.

At the wedding, Neruda receives the welcome news that there is no longer a Chilean warrant for his arrest, so he returns to Chile.

Moved, he makes recordings of all the beautiful sounds on the island onto a cassette including the heartbeat of his soon-to-be-born child.

Mario had been scheduled to recite a poem he had composed at a large communist gathering in Naples; the demonstration was violently broken up by the police.

Together with Troisi's ex-girlfriend Anna Pavignano, they stayed in a Santa Monica beachfront hotel and wrote a new screenplay.

Troisi received posthumous Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.

Furthermore, producer Mario Cecchi Gori also received a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

Troisi received posthumous BAFTA Award nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Screenplay.