Chile, 1901. Intent on expanding his holdings, notorious cattle rancher José Menéndez (Alfredo Castro) dispatches a trio of gunmen to the southern reaches of Tierra del Fuego to scout and scourge the land. A former British infantryman, MacLennan (Mark Stanley) has nominal command, though rancid American roughneck Bill (Benjamin Westfall) has his own ideas about that, while mestizo Segundo (Camilo Arancibia) knows a word out of place could result in a bullet in his back. Their odyssey across a forbiddingly harsh, ugly-beautiful terrain includes tense, fractious encounters with other colonists and bloody skirmishes with indigenous groups. Evocative of the work of Cormac McCarthy in its commitment to brutal truth-telling (although much of the violence takes place off-screen, it doesn’t feel that way) this South-western makes no bones about its searing critique of white supremacist foundational myths; myths that apply right across the Americas. What’s most impressive, though, is the stunning, elemental imagery limned by DP Simone D’Arcangelo and Harry Allouche’s striking, scratchy score. The Settlers can be a hard ride, but it’s not one you’ll forget in a hurry.
Supported by
Alfredo Castro, Mark Stanley, Benjamin Westfall, Camilo Arancibia
Chile/Argentina/France/
Denmark/UK
2023
Panorama
In Spanish and English with English subtitles
Racist Content, Colonial Violence, Sexual Violence
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Executive Producer
Fernando Bascuñán, Alex C. Lo, Constanza Erenchun, Amy Gardner
Producer
Giancarlo Nasi, Benjamin Domenech, Santiago Gallelli, Matías Roveda, Emily Morgan, Thierry Lenouvel, Stefano Centini, Katrin Pors, Eva Jakobsen, Mikkel Jersin, Kristina Börjeson, Anthony Muir, Ingmar Trost, Fernando Bascuñán
Screenwriter
Felipe Gálvez Haberle, Antonia Girardi
Cinematography
Simone D’Arcangelo
Editor
Matthieu Taponier
Production Design
Sebastián Orgambide
Director
Felipe Gálvez
Felipe Gálvez (b. 1983) is a Chilean filmmaker, writer and editor based in Paris. The Settlers is his first feature as director.
Missing VIFF? Check out what’s playing at the VIFF Centre
The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan
D'Artagnan arrives in Paris trying to find his attackers after being left for dead, which leads him to a real war where the future of France is at stake. He aligns himself with Athos, Porthos and Aramis, three musketeers of the King.
Evil Does Not Exist
After the international success of Drive My Car, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi quietly made this small-scale independent film, a work of simplicity and grace about a rural community and the developers who want to built a "glamping" retreat in the woods.
The Last Stop in Yuma County
Francis Galluppi's sun-baked neo-noir harks back to Reservoir Dogs and Red Rock West: half a dozen folks are stuck in a desert pit stop waiting for the fuel truck to arrive. None more impatiently than a couple of bank robbers.