MUBI debuted the official trailer for The Settlers (Los Colonos), the ‘anti-colonialist’ Western drama selected as Chile’s Official Selection for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.
Set in Chile at the beginning of the 20th century, a wealthy landowner hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his extensive property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across vast Patagonia. The expedition, composed of a young Chilean half-blood, an American mercenary, and led by a reckless British lieutenant, soon turns into a “civilizing” raid.
Starring in the film are Mark Stanley (Maclennan), Camilo Arancibia (Segundo), Benjamín Westfall (Bill), Alfredo Castro (Menéndez), Mishell Guaña (Kiepja), Agustín Rittano (Ambrosio), Mariano Llinás (Moreno), Sam Spruell (Colonel Martin), Adriana Stuven (Josefina), Luis Machín (Priest), and Marcelo Alonso.
Release Date
Directed by Felipe Gálvez Haberle making his directorial debut, The Settlers world premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival where it won the FIPRESCI Prize; and opens in theaters at the IFC Center in NYC and the Laemmle Royal in LA with a release date of Friday, January 12, 2024.
Synopsis
Debut writer-director Felipe Gálvez asserts himself as a revelatory new cinematic voice with The Settlers, a searing and indelible take on the Western. Blending historical specificity with vivid visual style, this Cannes Un Certain Regard FIPRESCI Prize winner creates a singular immersive vision, arresting in both content and form.
At the turn of the 20th century, three horsemen embark on an expedition across the Tierra del Fuego archipelago at the behest of a wealthy landowner, tasked with securing his vast state-appointed property. Accompanying a reckless British lieutenant and an American mercenary is mestizo marksman Segundo, who comes to realize, amidst rising tensions within the group, their true mission is to murderously “remove” the indigenous population.
Set against stunning mountain landscapes, Chile’s Best International Feature Film entry to the 96th Academy Awards is a visceral reckoning with national myth and the attendant violence. Painterly yet piercing, this acclaimed frontier epic turns a bold eye to the past, daring to reimagine its depiction in the present and for the future.
Reviews
Calling the film a ‘visually ravishing but tonally uncertain drama‘ in their review, Variety wrote, “The Settlers” is a heady, opaque western, slow to stir but vicious as a rattlesnake when it does, that marks a highly promising debut, albeit one marred by dialogue and performances that are not always equal to the tectonic gravitas to which this tale of colonial atrocity aspires.
Giving the film 3 of 4 stars in their review, Observer wrote, “A brutal, chilling indictment of capitalist colonialism, The Settlers mixes shocking violence with acute apathy. Dismemberment, sexual assault and murder are par for the course, as the film frames the formal creation of Chile in the late 19th century with the knowing, revealing lens of the Western genre.”
Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for The Settlers.