I rarely get a chance to see Brazilian films, but the ones I get to seem all to be special. This is also the case with ‘Bacurau‘ (2019), written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho – a well-known director with several internationally acclaimed films – in collaboration with Juliano Dornelles. It is a violent and impressive film that bears the stamp of Brazil but manages to raise issues and deliver messages that are valid anywhere. A film that will be hard to forget by those who will have the opportunity to see it.
The story takes place in Bacurau, a small imaginary town in an imaginary state of the immense Brazil. The name is that of a night bird from the tropical fauna of South America. The village seems quite poor and is also in conflict with the populist politician who controls the region, due to a dam that deprives it of its water supply. Despite all the poverty, there is solidarity between the people and a community spirit that helps them overcome hardships and that will be put to the ultimate test when strange phenomena begin to happen – mysterious at first, macabre later. The cistern that brings water to the village is attacked and pierced by bullets. Studs of horses and bikers in bright costumes cross the streets of the village. Bacurau is disappearing from digital map apps. Cell phone services and electricity are down. Then people start dying. Has Bacurau, completely isolated from the world, become a playground for the whims of clients rich enough to pay for the pleasure of killing? We see the assassins – a group of Americans armed to the teeth – but we never know why they do it. The villagers are forced to resort to means from their violent traditions and history to respond to the gratuitous violence and defend themselves.
The Filho – Dornelles couple does not leave the viewers many moments of relaxation. Something interesting is happening all the time, and almost every scene holds a surprise or a change of perspective. ‘Bacurau‘ starts as a social satire with magic-folkloric elements, but as the signs of external attack begin to appear, the story accumulates tension and the film turns into a violent confrontation, in the genre of judicial westerns. The cinematography makes effective and spectacular use of the surrounding natural landscape, and the music processes themes from John Carpenter’s films, horror films in which the director also created his own music. The entire film is also a tribute to the American composer-director. The team of actors is very well chosen, with special mentions for Bárbara Colen, a beautiful and talented actress whom I hope we can see in the future in more consistent roles, the well-known Sonia Braga and the German actor Udo Kier in his sixth decade of activity with a haunting ‘bad guy’ role. Carefully, the screenwriters-directors set their story “a few years from now”, but it is about a near future that is an extension to the present, a present in which the social conflicts between the oppressed categories and the local or external oppressors – sometimes in cahoots with each other – are more and more acute and take more and more violent forms. In fact, what we see on the screens in movies like ‘Bacurau‘ is nothing different than some of the recent news of our violent present. The film can also be seen as a warning, but a warning that may come too late.