trilogy premiered across 2012
and 2013, Ulrich Seidl tells the
story of two brothers called
back to their childhood home
upon the death of their mother.
They then return to their respec-
tive lives in Romania and Italy,
but the past resurfaces in the
aftermath of their mourning.
Seidl reteams with frequent
co-writer and wife Veronika
Franz and cinematographer
Wolfgang Thaler.STATE LINES
Beach Ratsdirector Eliza
Hittman wrapped shooting
on Never Rarely Sometimes
Always, which is now in post-
production. The film focuses
on two teenage girls in rural
Pennsylvania who travel to
New York City when they are
faced with an unintended
pregnancy. It’s shot by Hélène
Louvart, who frequently works
with Alice Rohrwacher, most
recently on Happy as Lazzaro.OUTWARD BOUND
ARTE France Cinéma will fund
the next movie from Nadav
Lapid, the subject of this issue’s
feature on his upcoming
Synonyms(see pg. 40). With
the working title Le Genou
d’Ahed, its plot concerns a
filmmaker foraying into the
desert and (according to one
florid but somewhat enigmatic
description) embroiling him-
self in “a fight against the
death of freedom in his coun-
try [and] a fight against the
death of his mother.” Shoot-
ing begins in December. ARTE
will also fund the next film
directed by Mathieu Amalric,
co-starring Vicky Krieps.K
leber mendonça filho and juliano
Dornelles’s new film has been likened to
Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred
Years of Solitude, and indeed both Bacurau and
Márquez’s Macondo—remote, isolated towns in
Brazil—have histories marked by turmoil, cor-
ruption, and political violence. Bacurautakes
place in the country’s sertão, or backcountry,
which in fiction has been represented mostly as
wild, bewildering, and parched. It is Brazil’s
Wild West, if you will.
In Mendonça and Dornelles’s film, the rural
community is mysteriously targeted by heavily
armed and murderous foreign white tourists.
The stunned Bacurauans have no choice but to
defend themselves—and this they do with gusto.
Among the unforgettable scenes is one in which
a vulnerable elderly black farmer shoots his white
assailant—a scene whose B-film gore elicited
gasps in Cannes, but also applause. Yet the dra-
matic scene echoes the ending of Mendonça’s first
narrative feature, Neighboring Sounds, in which a
gunshot triggers a series of oppressive actions
whose denouement runs across generations.
Though Bacurau takes place in a near future and
in a different mode, it too is very much about the
past and its legacy, and just as perceptively so.
At the outset of the film—which opens in
Brazil in August but has no announced U.S. dis-
tributor—the Bacurauans unite at the funeral ofa black matriarch. Race remains an important
element in the drama and the region, as are the
local customs and folklore that sustain the people.
Among the larger-than-life characters is Domin-
gas (Sonia Braga), the brazen local surgeon, who
is also a reckless drunk and a bigmouth—a strik-
ing departure for Braga, whose past roles have
often traded on sensuality but who this time is
more shrew than muse. Braga’s role signals Men-
donça and Dornelles’s overall intent of creating
characters who are striking yet elusive, including
the outlandish but fiercely likable transsexual
bandit, Lunga (Silvero Pereira).
Few films make it clearer that whether you
see beauty or ugliness depends on how you
steer your gaze. The deliberate and undeniable
ugliness in Bacurau comes mostly from the
invaders’ assault. But the staggering beauty lies
not just in the sertão environs, which Mendonça
and Dornelles (and DP Pedro Sotero) filmed in
the midst of heavy rains and saw transformed,
practically overnight, into a lush, green land-
scape. More importantly, beauty and strength
emanate from the resilient roots of this mythol-
ogized land and its inhabitants, as the filmmak-
ers create a blistering portrait of resistance.Ela Bittencourtworks as a critic and curator in
the U.S. and Brazil and consults for international
film festivals. She also runs the film site Lyssaria.Few films make it clearer than Bacurauthat whether you see beauty or ugliness depends on how you steer your
gaze. Beauty and strength emanate from the resilient roots of this mythologized land and its inhabitants, as the
filmmakers create a blistering portrait of resistance.8 | FILMCOMMENT| July-August 2019RELEASE ME/ By Ela BittencourtA History of Violence
Brazil’s explosive Bacurauportrays a people hunted but fighting back