Keswick Film Club - Bacurau

Synopsis

Cancelled due to Coronavirus closure

Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, this feels like a Sergio Leone western...on steroids. "Set deep in the north-eastern Sertão - the Brazilian outback - it mashes up many themes and influences, but is chiefly a scream of satirical defiance against new president Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right globaliser who made his international statesman debut at Davos last year, famously promising to make the country more open to foreign trade. This movie's closing credits pointedly note that the production created 800 jobs" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.

Teresa gets a ride in a water truck to her grandmother's funeral; Bacurau is in dispute with the authorities and needs the water. As if this and the funeral aren't enough for the tight-knit community, there is a bunch of foreigners holed up nearby, armed to the teeth with hi-tech gear. And then the village disappears off GPS systems, and their mobile phones stop working...

The film deliberately switches genres, going from tragedy to comedy to action drama and, yes, do expect some blood. As Peter Bradshaw finishes, "It is a really strange film, beginning in a kind of ethno-anthropology and documentary style, becoming a poisoned-herd parable or fever dream and then a Jacobean-style bloodbath. It is an utterly distinctive film-making, executed with ruthless clarity and force".

And to quote one of our programme team who went to see it, "It is just brilliant". I’ll go with that!