THE SETTLERS (LOS COLONOS) Discovery

Chile’s Oscar^® submission for Best International Feature

In Felipe Gálvez’s visually striking debut, tailor-made for the big screen, three travelers (a British expat, an American henchman, and Segundo, an Indigenous Chilean) trek through 1900s Patagonia on a roughly veiled colonizing expedition at the behest of a Spanish businessman, José Menéndez. As unexpected and intense brutality ensues on their journey, Segundo, played by the mesmerizing and stoic Camilo Arancibia, resists committing violence but is forced to cooperate. With surprising moments of humor sprinkled in between shocking cruelty, Gálvez pokes fun at male egotism while asserting that for Indigenous people to be accepted in their own country, they must conform, obey, submit and assimilate. Based on suppressed historical events, THE SETTLERS is the first Chilean production to win Cannes’ FIPRESCI Prize and is Chile’s official Oscar® submission for Best International Feature. –Julia Kipnis