SORCERY (BRUJERÍA) tells the story of the trial on Chiloé Island off the coast of Chile when a group of Huilliche men called La Recta Provincia were tried as witches. It’s a fascinating story whose adaptation here, unfortunately, doesn’t do justice to the real-life tale. Though there are resonant anti-colonial themes and an interesting perspective on witchcraft as a resistance practice, the film is sluggish, with too much focus on atmosphere and not enough on character.

1880 on Chiloé Island. Rosa Raín (Valentina Véliz Caileo) wakes one morning to find her foreman’s sheep slaughtered with ritualistic bindings around their necks. Her father is blamed for the massacre and is murdered by one of the island’s German settlers. Rosa seeks justice from the Mayor (Daniel Muñoz) and the Church but is eventually forced to turn to Mateo (Daniel Antivilo), a local Huilliche leader, and La Recta Provincia, a band of sorcerers.

There’s a very clear anti-colonial theme in the Indigenous people of the island seeking revenge against the German settlers stealing their land, imposing new laws, and murdering their people. The revenge story and the period setting evoke Jennifer Kent’s THE NIGHTINGALE, though SORCERY is nowhere near as brutal. Over the course of the film, Rosa turns from the Christian faith imposed on the island as she discovers that it’s not designed to help people like her. Instead, she turns back to the traditions of law and magic of her own people. The film’s director, Christopher Murray, has written about witchcraft and rituals as a form of anti-colonial resistance and a reaffirmation of the fractured social identity of the Huilliche on the island (https://doi.org/10.4000/anthrovision.3946). In a sense, the film does what some critics argued Martin Scorsese should have done with KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: told the story of the murder of Indigenous people from the perspective of the Indigenous people rather than the perspective of the white colonialist murderers.

“In a sense, the film does what some critics argued Martin Scorsese should have done with KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: told the story of the murder of Indigenous people from the perspective of the Indigenous people rather than the perspective of the white colonialist murderers.”

As Rosa, Valentina Véliz Caileo delivers an incredible performance for her first role. Even at her young age, she simmers with the anger of the colonised, her stoic expressions carrying the weight of Huilliche oppression. Rosa’s grief and her drive for justice feel raw and real in a way that the emotional beats of the other characters never do. Compared to Caileo, the other actors feel stiff in a way that slows down the film whenever the focus shifts from Rosa.

Although Christopher Murray nicely evokes the period setting and the context around the La Recta Provincia trial, this atmosphere is not enough to anchor the film. It’s all too quiet and understated, with a slow burn that never leads to either the explosive catharsis of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON or the brutal vengeance of THE NIGHTINGALE. Apart from Rosa, the characters feel flat, which is especially detrimental to the characterisation of the German settler and murderer Stefan (Sebastian Hülk), who incites the film’s violence and the witch leader Mateo, who should feel far more interesting.

It’s a shame that SORCERY doesn’t do justice to the fascinating story of Chilean Indigenous history that it’s adapting. The wider story of Chile’s colonisation by white settlers and the inevitable violence of such colonialism comes across but not in a way that’s as memorable or impactful as such tragedies should be.