Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Christopher Murray
Starring: Valentina Véliz Caileo, Daniel Antivilo, Daniel Muñoz, Sebastian Hülk
Following Felipe Gálvez' The Settlers, Christopher Murray's Sorcery is another tale of colonial horrors on the wind-beaten Atlantic
coast of Chile in the late 19th century. Murray's film takes inspiration
from a real life event, the 1880 trial that saw members of an indigenous
island community accused of practicing witchcraft against European
settlers.
The island is Chiloé, which has been settled by German farmers who
employ the indigenous locals as servants. 13-year-old Rosa (Valentina Véliz, impressively balancing wide-eyed innocence and steely determination) is
in the employ of one such family, led by tough patriarch Stefan (Sebastian Hülk). Rosa has converted to Christianity and speaks German with her
employers. She seems innocently content with her lot, though it's clear
her German masters don't consider her their equal. When the family gathers
at the dinner table, Rosa is forced to leave the room while they say The
Lord's Prayer. She listens to the words and mouths along from the next
room.
Rosa's view of Christianity is shattered when her father is accused of
being involved in what appears to be a ritual slaughter of Stefan's sheep.
He's torn apart on command by Stefan's dogs and Rosa is exiled from the
home. Seeking justice for the killing, Rosa approaches the town mayor (Daniel Muñoz), who knows which side his bread is buttered on and refuses to cause
trouble with the Germans. A local priest is similarly unilling to help,
but he does send Rosa to Mateo (Daniel Antivilo), an indigenous
elder who allows her to sleep in his barn and earn her keep by helping him
catch fish.
Aware of his involvement in "La Recta Provincia," a rumoured coven
of indigenous witches, Rosa pleads with Mateo to use his powers against
Stefan. Maeo's initial hesitancy gives way when he prevents Rosa from
drowning herself in the sea. The members of La Recta Provincia gather and
begin a vengeful ritual.
Like the recent Slavic folk-horror Nightsiren, Sorcery finds itself in the difficult position of attempting to spin a
fantasy of revenge while avoiding portraying its righteous heroes
indulging in the sort of supernatural antics those persecuted in real life
were accused of. To suggest that La Recta Provincia did indeed carry out
acts of sorcery would only enhance the claims of their persecutors, and so
Murray is forced to imbue his tale with an ambiguity that viewers may find
frustrating. As the audience we're placed in the difficult position of
wishing to see Rosa embrace witchcraft and use its powers to find justice
while being all too aware that such a depiction would be deeply
problematic and wrapped up in all sorts of offensive tropes about
"mystical" indigenous people.
Murray handles this problem more astutely than we saw with Nightsiren. He depicts the supernatural in a manner that gives the viewer the
ultimate judgement of whether any paranormal forces are at play here. When
Stefan's two young boys disappear, rumours spread that they have been
transformed into his two dogs. A shot of the dogs on the boys' beds can
thus be taken to back up this claim if the viewer so wishes. What of the
birds that seem to circle unnaturally over the home of local witch Aurora
(Neddiel Muñoz Millalonco)? Again, it's left to the viewer to
decide if this is a natural phenomenon or something more inexplicable. A
vest made of skin is either fashioned from the skin of an animal or from
Stefan's boys, depending on which claims you swallow.
Regardless of the thematic ambiguity, Murray certainly shoots his film in
the manner of a horror movie. The mist and rain blown across the island by
the Atlantic winds gives the film the appearance of the many folk-horrors
set under similar grey skies in Britain. There's a foreboding sense of
dark forces being brought to play by lingering shots of religious
paraphernalia, be it the candle-lit Christian shrine in the mayor's home
or the long, knotted rope dragged by a naked witch. It's as though Murray
wants us to contemplate the meaning of such symbols by staring at them,
and he seems keen to point out how the symbols of Christianity and the
indigenous beliefs are equally absurd or potent, depending on your own
views.
Sorcery is something of a fantasy for those of us who frown at the respect
afforded to Christianity by the victims of its colonial past. There's a
great irony that as Europeans reject Christianity, it's being kept alive
by the descendants of Indigenous Americans and Africans who had it forced
upon them at the point of a sword. When Rosa breaks apart her handmade
cross it's a punch the air moment, but real world evidence suggests it's
perhaps the most fantastical element of the entire movie.
