Colonos

Well, difficult to decide. We have been to Chile, a magnificent country, so beautiful and savage at the same time.

This film purports to tell the story of the foundation, or attempted foundation of Chile, at the start of the 20th century. I say "purports" because certain elements don't quite fit.

If you see it, can you divine how or why the half cast character decides to eliminate the indigenous peoples? He pretends to shoot them, he refuses to do what he is told by his supposed boss, a British ex soldier, and other oddities.

It can certainly be interpreted as a sideways view of the abuses of the colonisers, presuming on the well known terrible history of their invasion, but perhaps little else.

The presentation is unusual, but may be an interpretation of the horrors. Filmed mostly in the dark of winter, it is certainly not a tourist advertisement.

Interesting? Yes, but only as a viewpoint.

I did not know anything about this parrt of Chile history. This movie begins like a western, with a scheme rather close to TOM HORN, where it is impossible to say who is the good character and who is the villain. This amazing film is not destined to wide audiences, as you can guess, and it is quite painful, depressing, disturbing, but so close to actual facts. I really loved this picture, a so amazing, lesson of history. It definitely deserved to be told. It is rough, gritty, and divided in two parts actually. That's exactly the kind of film that I search for from Latin America or Us or European indie film industries.

Watching The Settlers is a grueling, almost physical challenge. Some of the scenes are so disturbing, and presented with such unflinching realism, that it is impossible not to look away at times.

The presentation of the horror of the genocide in Chile, and the appalling treatment of the indigenous people, at the turn of the last century is depicted in a way that is moving in a all of the ways that Killing of the Flower Amon wanted to be (and simply wasn't).

All of the performances are fantastic, especially the Indian natives, whose traumatized and quiet demeanors seems to drive home the atrocities being inflicted on them.

The Horror!

I've watched it at the Film Festival in Warsaw, Poland. In my opinion it's a masterpiece. Though it makes for a bleak and depressing viewing, as it demontrates the cynicism, barbaric cruelty and racism of the white colonizers towards the indigenous inhabitants of Patagonia at the end of the 19th century, it certainly is worth your time and the price of a cinema admission. I recommend watching it in a cinema, because it looks and sounds superbly. In fact every aspect of the filmmaking craft is excellent here: the direction, the script, acting, music and cinematography. Worth mentioning is the participation of the British ex-soldiers and a Texan in those events, it allows the film to indicate that the barbarity and greed demonstrated in Chile weren't something exceptional and peculiar but rather commonplace, similar atrocities were committed against the indigenous people in North America and by the British throughout their colonial empire.

The film is not bad, but the poverty and suffering of a people and natives are shown in a very gentle way and everything seems poetic, without any particular fervor. I gave 7, because of the other things, especially because of photography, but all together it is less than 7. Why? Mostly because of American-English cast. They are more for a TV show than for the big screen of the cinema. Given that this is Galvez's debut, it must be noted that he really committed to being as faithful as possible to the depiction of his country's history, not too aggressive, but still quite poetically mild. In any case, the cruel and murderous attitude of the colonists towards the natives was shown.