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Set in the remote islands off the coast of Chile in the late 19th century, Christopher Murray’s Sorcery tells the absorbing story of a young indigenous girl seeking answers after a devastating loss. 13-year-old Rosa works as a servant for German farmers who have settled on the forbidding shores of Chiloé.

When the entire flock of sheep on one farm is found mysteriously murdered and her father meets an untimely end while questioned about the incident, Rosa finds herself alone in the world. Determined to see justice served but met with indifference by local authorities favoring the European colonists, Rosa turns to members of a traditional medicine group shunned by the church for help avenging her father’s death.

As Rosa is initiated into the ancient rituals of the group called La Recta Provincia and unravels the true events surrounding her family’s demise, Sorcery explores powerful themes of colonial oppression,...

Valentina Véliz Caileo in Sorcery

Chilean director Christopher Murray's folk horror, Sorcery, set on the remote Chilean island of Chiloé in the late 19th century, subverts genre clichés by positioning sorcery as a means of resistance and empowerment against foreign settlers. The story is told from the point of view of Rosa (Valentina Véliz Caileo), a young indigenous girl whose father is murdered by Stefan (Sebastian Hülk), a German settler. Seeking help from Mateo (Daniel Antivilo) and a powerful organisation of sorcerers, Rosa is forced to confront the hideous imbalance of power that makes justice a privilege.

Murray's filmography is complemented by the documentaries Propaganda, Dios (God) and Oasis, and the narrative features Manuel De Ribera and The Blind Christ (El Cristo Ciego). He imposes the sensibility of documentary and drama on his third narrative film, Sorcery. He creates space in the fantastical and supernatural to ground the idea of sorcery in the.

The message is clear but subtle in Christopher Murray’s anti-colonial fantasy which features an emanantly watchful performance from Valentina Véliz Caileo

Just as the 2015 film Embrace of the Serpent reversed the terms of the Aguirre-style colonialist expedition picture, this Chilean-Mexican-German collaboration (produced by Pablo Larraín) is a kind of inverted horror film that similarly draws on South American history. Where in western horror, Indigenous or pagan elements usually become demonised return-of-the-repressed fodder, in Chilean director Christopher Murray’s unsettling fantasy they are a source of identity, power and even reverence.

Sorcery is a 19th-century radicalisation story. On the rain-lashed island of Chiloé, Indigenous teenager Rosa (Valentina Véliz Caileo) works as a servant for German farmers; speaking their language and practising their Christian religion, she is cut off from her Huilliche roots. When all the homesteaders’ sheep die simultaneously, with twine braids found on their corpses, her father refuses to...

Sorcery Review — Sorcery (2023) Film Review from the 46th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Christopher Murray, written by Pablo Paredes and Christopher Murray and starring Valentina Véliz Caileo, Daniel Antivilo, Sebastian Hulk, Daniel Munoz, Daniel Antivilo, Annick Duran and Sebastian Nunez. Filmmaker Christopher Murray’s Sorcery is set in the 19th century on [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Sorcery: Valentina Véliz Caileo Delivers a Compelling Performance in a Dark and Dreary Film [Sundance 2023]...

Christopher Murray’s Sorcery asks timeless questions about the meaning of justice in a world where the oppressed are tried in courts set up by their oppressors. Set in late-19th-century Chile, specifically the island of Chiloé, it follows Rosa (Valentina Véliz Caileo), a Huilliche 13-year-old seeking to avenge the murder of her father at the hands of the German settlers who had once employed them.

The problem: technically it wasn’t the Germans who killed him but the violent dogs they unleashed, and “dogs can’t go to jail,” she is told by the mayor (a chilling Daniel Muñoz) who recommends she give up her mission to find justice.

Fortunately, Rosa learns she doesn’t need to follow the path of human laws to avenge her father when she meets Mateo (Daniel Antivilo), a Huiliche elder who reminds Rosa she has the ancestral power of her people and introduces...

Chilean director Christopher Murray travels all the way to Chile’s Chiloé Island in “Sorcery,” where a teenage Huilliche girl, Rosa Raín (Valentina Véliz Caileo), witnesses the murder of her father by a German settler. At first, she seems helpless. But when she encounters much-older Mateo (Daniel Antivilo), he makes her aware of her roots and magic that comes straight from the land.

“I was always intrigued by that place. It’s an ambiguous territory,” he tells Variety.

Following its world premiere at Sundance, the film — produced by Larraín brothers’ Fabula and co-produced by Pimienta Films and the Match Factory, the latter also handling sales — will head to Goteborg’s International Competition next.

Flirting with horror, Murray was actually inspired by a true story — the persecution of the members of the Recta Provincia organization back in 1880, accused of witchcraft.

“I found it mind-blowing, this whole concept of state vs. sorcerers.

Sorcery: "On the remote island of Chiloé in the late 19th century, an Indigenous girl named Rosa lives and works with her father on a farm. When the foreman brutally turns on Rosa’s father, she sets out for justice, seeking help from the king of a powerful organization of sorcerers."

Directed by: Christopher Murray Screenwriters: Christopher Murray, Pablo Paredes Produced by: Juan De Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Rocío Jadue, Nicolás Celis Co-Producers: Viola Fügen, Michael Weber Executive Producer: Sergio Karmy Director of Photography: María Secco Cast: Valentina Véliz, Daniel Antivilo, Sebastian Hulk, Daniel Muñoz, Rosa Raín

World Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival January 22, 2023

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An official selection for this year’s Sundance Film Festival, director Christopher Murray‘s Sorcery has debuted its official trailer this week, promising a dark revenge thriller with a twist.

In the film, “On the remote island of Chiloé in the late 19th century, an Indigenous girl named Rosa lives and works with her father on a farm. When the foreman brutally turns on Rosa’s father, she sets out for justice, seeking help from the king of a powerful organization of sorcerers.”

Here’s a longer synopsis from the official Sundance website…

“Chiloé Island, 1880. After her father is murdered by a German colonist, Rosa (newcomer Valentina Véliz Caileo), a 13-year-old Huilliche girl, renounces her Christian upbringing and seeks shelter with Mateo (Daniel Antivilo), the leader of an Indigenous organization that practices witchcraft. Under Mateo’s gruff yet tender tutelage, she learns the art of sorcery and vows to settle the score.