A wild, disturbing sci-fi Western from Brazilian directors Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Mendonca Filho, Bacurau is set in the remote village of the title, “a few years from now.” Water is scarce and controlled by outside forces, yet life in the village goes on, if a bit strangely (I never did quite figure out what the sex boxcar was all about). Then one day a group of foreigners descend on the town for a bit of sport, in the manner of The Most Dangerous Game. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the current political climate in Brazil, you’ll be able to recognize the basic ideas at play here—especially that of exploitation, environmental and otherwise. But without more context it was hard for me to fully connect with what Bacurau was up to. The characters—both the villagers and the foreigners—are thinly sketched (even the village doctor played by the legendary Sonia Braga), while the vision of the near future feels hastily assembled. Without such careful world-building, to an outside observer Bacurau feels like a bunch of bonkers set pieces in a vacuum.
