Sorcery

 

Feature length film from Christopher Murray

Based upon actual 19th century witchcraft trials in Chile, Sorcery features a stunning lead performance from Valentina Veliz Caileo, a young girl using the title of the film to avenge her father's brutal death.

A wonderful premise of a film featuring enigmatic mystery and a key lead performance from a young adult, there is so much potential for this film to succeed and yet it fails to land unfortunately.

The use of landscape as a mystery to itself does not evoke the required atmosphere - long moments of quiet elicit feelings of monotony instead of haunting. 

When the trailer was issued of this title, it was sold as a forebearer and successor to Pan's Labyrinth - a mythical parable where a young girl must overcome the adversity of the German settlers amidst the Chilean landscape maintaining the truth to herself in her quest to avenge her father's passing. And yet when the moments of action come not as a shock to the system but a welcome change from moments of stillness that instead of offering moments of resonance instead make for an unwanted plodding to proceedings. 

Imagine all the council meeting scenes of Killers of the Flower Moon for an hour and a half, when a lot is said and not much done, and you would rather return to the threat and menace put upon the indigenous people to help thrust the momentum of the narrative which stagnates and treads water when it should be flourishing.

The intention is there but it just fails to match expectations of the trailer, and that is a shame as there are so many elements to make a great statement here on the Chilean spirit. However, the end product is lacking that one element of the spell to be magical.

Sorcery is distributed by Sovereign Distribution and on limited release from Friday 14th June

Nostalgia for the Light

Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzman returns with another documentary this time that is at times both deeply personal and yet extremely political.

Nostalgia for the Light is set about the Atacama desert in Chile; where the inhospitable climate and high altitude made it ideal for the building of an observatory which was opened in 1977.  The message of bringing the universe closer to home shows an aspirational tone of the South American nation.

Yet in the same vicinity there is a dark undertone, during the General Pinochet dictatorship used the desert for the Chacabuco Mine prisons were people opposed to the regime would be taken to concentration camps and ultimately killed.  Later bodies were left in mass graves in the Atacama.  Now widows and families scavenge the harsh terrain for any trace of loved ones that may remain; this tone of desperation is in stark contrast to the aspiration and hope for attainment of the universe.

Guzman is an intelligent filmmaker and is keen to mark the distinction between the sky and the ground; giving both stories an equal platform.  Guzman's interview with one widow, Violeta Barrios, is particularly wrenching in its honesty.

Clearly the notion and metaphor of astronomy is a clever one; many of those interviewed state how Chile needs a telescope to look into the ground of the desert to find its past; whereas the telescope itself is something looking towards the future.

Guzman shoots with a good eye when he looks upward, showing scenes of great mystery and magic in the stars whilst giving a look of another world on the Chilean landscape.

A film that although the notion of a documentary may not appeal, it is certainly a film that values the time and commitment.

Nostalgia for the Light is out on Friday 13th July on limited release and is distributed by New Wave Films