It is a western of singular harshness. A film whose images are printed on the retina to stay there for a long time. The Colonos (Los Colonos) by Chilean filmmaker Felipe Gálvez Haberle, presented at Un Certain Regard, was very well received at its official screening in Cannes. A deserved ovation.
A bitter historical drama, the film takes place in 1901, in the extreme south of Chile, and returns to the genocide of the Onas Indians in Tierra del Fuego. This story inspired by real testimonies tells how a society was able to build itself on an extermination of sad memory. Tierra del Fuego is the secret issue of the film. The Western white aristocracy of the time never ceased to want to "civilize" this immense and fertile territory. Gálvez Haberle, who knows his classics, sets up a plot in three acts. The first takes almost the form of a spaghetti western, with a lot of trumpeting music à la Ennio Morricone, and imposing purple lettering that...
This article is for subscribers only. You still have 69% to discover.
Want to read more?
Unblock all items immediately.
TEST FOR 0,99€
Already a subscriber? Log