«Brujería» is a welcome co-production between three countries that illustrates the multiple economic, legal, and cultural conflicts that arise when antagonistic positions, such as the European developmentalist and the Indo-American conservationist, collide. The first sequence establishes the central conflict: on Isla Grande de Chiloé (Chile), at the end of the 19th century, Rosa, a Huilliche girl, witnesses the murder of her father, Juan Raín, at the hands of a despotic German settler, blaming him of the death of his flock of sheep, which show evidence of the intervention of residents of the area, through a spell. That tension caused by outrage, between the arrogant colonial fundamentalism of Europeans as Stefan and the magical thinking of the original inhabitants of America, is the trigger for the entire story.
Rosa, who until then has served as a servant to the German family, leaves the farm and goes in search of justice to the nearest community. But the Chilean authority will not intervene: Juan Raín was murdered by the settler's dogs and the dogs are not accused, tried, or condemned. It is when the town priest directs Rosa to the house of Mateo, the leader of an organization of sorcerers called La Recta Provincia. A chain of dreams, rites, magical transmutations and crude reality then continues, which make up this fateful story that continues to this day, at the hands of the creole heirs of colonial rule.
Some reviews associate «Brujería» with «The VVitch: A New-England Folktale,» an unfortunate comparison that equates a story with strong ethnographic ties and marked by a libertarian ideology (co-written by the director and the poet, professor and political activist Pablo Paredes Muñoz, both Chilean), with an old-fashioned story of trickery, goats, inverted pentagrams and child-eating witches, lost on the road to Salem, which is nothing more than a fight between Caucasians. «Brujería» is closer, in my opinion, to Antonia Bird's film «Ravenous», the terrifying fable (written by Ted Griffith) that mixes myths and beliefs of the natives of North America with the concept of the "manifest destiny", which consequently cause a plague of cannibalism and vampirism.
In addition to the participation of Paredes Muñoz, the technical-artistic credits are evidence of the prestigious talent involved: produced by Pablo Larraín (the director of «Tony Manero,» «Post mortem» and «El club»), photographed by the award-winning María Secco (of «La jaula de oro», «Club sándwich» and «Te prometo anarquía») and the performance of poet, singer, educator and composer-folklorist Neddiel Muñoz Millalonco in the key role of the sorceress who guides Rosa through a beautiful initiation rite..
I think it is advisable to warn that the title may confuse us: it is not a film of horrors or shocks, although the magical element is handled with elegance, beautifully conceived by art director Bernardita Baeza, in environments where water predominates: sea, waterfalls , rain. Highly recommended.
