MIFF 4: SORCERY

When her father is killed by a colonist's dogs, Rosa seeks justice. Er, let's backtrack. Rosa, indigenous (Chile) saw that the sheep had collapsed in the field. Investigating, she found a rough hewn rope of a kind she recognises. She calls for her father who can do nothing to reverse what looks like local magic. The Farmer comes out, gets everything wrong and sets his huge dogs on Rosa's father who doesn't get up from the encounter. Rosa seeks justice.

The local Mayor has no interest in assisting an indigene. But the local priest offers some cryptic guidance which leads her to the cabin of a local fisherman who takes her in. Rosa begins to witness strange events and is even led to some by a flock of birds circling the cabin and then flying off in one direction. This is where we are told certainly that, despite the almost verite look and feel of this sombre and powerful film, it will be playing like a folk tale and the magic that we see will be folded into the reality of the colonial brutality with craft and style.

It would be a mistake to see Sorcery's pace as listless as there is so much to consider the more we see and the base value of the powerless needing to find their own weapons sells like a tide. So, there aren't sudden acts of retributive violence or third act revelations, just a progression of cause and effect that, even when fantastic, feels natural. Horror can approach the surface but this piece is more interested in showing you its context that distracting you with violence.

With its lead actor, Valentina Veliz Caileo, a perfectly controlled surface for us and all the other characters to read what we will from her mostly placid (but never unmoved) face, a haunting score somewhere between electronics and oddly scored small ensemble strings, and its tightening grip on justice as a more powerful response than eye for eye revenge. In its final moments we come to understand this and it couldn't be more disturbingly beautiful