Sorcery
In 19th-century Chile, a 13-year-old girl turns to witchcraft to exact her revenge.
This film is set on the island of Chiloé off the Pacific Coast of Southern Chile and takes place in the late 19th century. Publicity for it stresses its factual basis and such a context encourages one to expect it to be a drama about colonialism akin to Felipe Gálvez’s film The Settlers (2023) which tackled just such historical issues in Patagonia at an only slightly later date. Furthermore, this new release, Sorcery, starts off by quoting a defendant at a tribunal hearing in 1881 whose words were these: "For the Chilean and German settlers who arrived, this island is the end of the world. For those of us who have been here forever, it is the beginning". Yet, if all this suggest parallels between the two films, there is an element that strongly differentiates them: Sorcery is all too keen to tell its tale in a manner that has at least one foot in the genre of folk horror.
Nevertheless, the initial impression is of good storytelling. Without any preamble the opening minutes of the film introduce us to the central character, 13-year-old Rosa played by Valentina Véliz Caileo, establish the fact that she is an indigenous girl in service to a German settler, Stefan (Sebastian Hülk) and lead into the key event that will set the drama in motion. Stefan owns sheep and finds them dead in circumstances which lead him to regard the Huilliche, the race to which Rosa belongs, as being responsible. He turns on her and on her father and when the father resists sets his attack dogs on him. They are so savage that the father dies and the film becomes in essence the story of how, seeking revenge for this, Rosa returns to the ancient beliefs of her own people to achieve it.
Now that Rosa has become an orphan, Acevedo the mayor (Daniel Muñoz) ought to recognise that this young orphan needs help, but he's not really concerned and the local priest (Sergio Sauville) is only slightly more useful to her. He sends her to an old inhabitant to ask to be taken in, this being Mateo (Daniel Antivilo) who is one of her own people. Indeed, once he starts looking after her, it soon becomes clear that Mateo is a leading figure among those who are Huilliche and who, bonding together as La Recta Provincia, continue to trust in their own ancient beliefs and legends including the exercise of sorcery. Another person thus involved is Aurora Quinchen (Neddiel Muñoz Millalonco) who is a witch. Before long Stefan’s two young sons, Thorsten (Matías Bannister) and Franz (Iker Echevers), go missing and a search party headed by Stefan and by their mother Agnes (Annick Durán) fails to find them. In this place and at that time rumours as to what has happened are inevitable and even include the possibility that a Huilliche spell has turned the two boys into dogs (a viewpoint that the film seems ready to endorse).
When the authorities brand La Recta Provincia as criminals, an attitude endorsed by the mayor, the time has come for Mateo to be seized and put on trial. In the course of these events Mateo is ready to protect Rosa by saying that she does not need to get involved but, regardless of this, the narrative shows how she is more and more drawn in to embrace the world of sorcery despite the fact that we have discovered at the outset that Rosa is a native who has taken up Christian beliefs (whether voluntarily or under pressure we never learn). This conversion away from Christianity together with the suggestion that Stefan and his family, along with the mayor and his pregnant wife (Yun Hérnandez), are at risk from witchcraft (which in their case might also be a form of justice) are the elements that drive the film. Rather than being a tale that plays out as a believable tangle of attitudes and beliefs central to much colonial history, Sorcery comes across as a revenge drama geared to the kind of menace that appeals to fans of supernatural horror movies. Consequently, Sorcery may well be a disappointment for viewers who are looking for a realistic historical drama but, alas, it's also the case that for horror fans the film is likely to be too restrained to have any strong appeal. This element does play a bigger role late on when acts of sorcery involve the need to wear a garment made from human skin but that will hardly be sufficient to satisfy those in quest of a folk horror movie. Sorcery is decently made, adequately acted and capable of creating a suitably bleak atmosphere, but the concept remains one that gives the impression of this being a film that falls between two stools.
Original title: Brujeria.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Valentina Véliz Caileo, Daniel Antivilo, Sebastian Hülk, Daniel Muñoz, Neddiel Muñoz Millalonco, Annick Durán, Yun Hernández, Matías Bannister, Iker Echevers, Juan Cayupel, Pedro Cayupel, Sergio Sauville.
Dir Christopher Murray, Pro Juan de Dios Larrain, Pablo Larrain, Rocio Jadue and Nicolás Celis, Screenplay Christopher Murray and Pablo Paredes, Ph María Secco, Pro Des Bernardita Baeza, Ed Paloma López, Music Leonardo Heiblum, Costumes Tatiana Pimentel.
Fabula/Pimienta Films/The Match Factory/Bord Cadre Films/Sovereign Films-Sovereign Film Distribution.
100 mins. Mexico/Germany/Chile. 2023. UK Rel: 14 June 2024. Cert. 15.
