Bacurau

Movie Name: Bacurau
Year of Release: 2019
Director: Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho
Starring: Bárbara Colen, Tomás Aquino, Sonia Braga, Udo Kier, Silvero Pereira, Thardelly Lima, Rubens Santos, Wilson Rabelo, Carlos Francisco, Luciana Souza, Karina Teles, Antonio Saboia, Buda Lira, Clebia Sousa, Danny Barbosa, Edilson Silva, Eduarda Samara, Fabiola Liper
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7
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Synopsis and Review

Following the well received "Aquarius", writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho returned, this time around partnering with Juliano Dornelles, who was credited as a production designer in "Aquarius". The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival of 2019, where it went on to win the Jury Prize of that year. The film takes place in the near future, in a small rural village in Brazil, in the area of Pernambuco. The matriarch of that community has passed away, and her granddaughter Teresa returns for the funeral service (and also to distribute some medication), after being away from the area for many years. The community is in the midst of also witnessing some unexpected events, firstly with a couple of bikers scouting the area very unexpectedly, the same thing for some sightings of UFO looking drones. Turns out there's a dispute over water rights from the local river. The corrupt mayor of the area has some pernicious plans in motion, including leveraging some international mercenaries to eradicate the locals. As the mercenaries go about killing the locals, the community resorts to their connections, and turn the tables on the outsiders.

"Bacurau" benefits from perfectly illustrating a small, isolated but deeply connected rural community in Brazil, one where the ties that bind everyone together are deeply rooted. The film vividly depicts a way of life that for many may be somewhat alien, but that still exists very much to this day: one that is communal, spirited, where the survival of the community is rooted on its natural resources, which are as much part of the community as the people itself. The river, the water that brings life to the community, is as essential to them as the people who live within the area. And while it would be easy to dismiss this film as a reflection on how modernity, the digital world, can and will clash with a more rural and traditionally rooted way of life, the film does introduce the fact that the community isn't unaware of the outside world or completely anachronistic with it. They choose how they consume the modernity of the world around them, how it becomes part of how they live. It's a film that is simultaneously insightful in how it captures a different way of living, with characters that are unmistakably from the area (even if the characters themselves are not that developed), but that eventually turns into a modern take on a vengeance western, where those fighting for their way of life and for their own place, brutally clash with those who never understood them, and simply wanted to purge them from the area. It's a slow burn that is filled with great details, smartly written, performed and brought to life. The cast is uniformly solid, though the film gives Udo Kier a great supporting character. The production team is solid, including Petro Sotero's cinematography, Thales Junqueira's production design, and score by Mateus Alves and Tomaz Alves Souza. Worth watching.