Director: Felipe Gálvez Haberle
Starring: Camilo Arancibia, Mark Stanley, Benjamin Westfall, Alfredo Castro, Marcelo Alonso, Sam Spruell, Mishell Guaña, Adriana Stuven
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 97 mins

The Settlers (or Los Colonos in its native Chilean) caused quite the storm when it debuted at Cannes last year and is Felipe Gálvez Haberle’s directorial debut. It’s a revisionist Western that takes place at the turn of the 20th Century as settlers from multiple European nations arrive in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, grabbing as much land as they can. 

Scotsman soldier Alexander MacLennan (Mark Stanley) leads an army under a reign of terror with his unpredictable nature and general drunkeness. He’s under the employment of Jose Menéndez (Alfredo Castro), who tasks him with leading an expedition to the coast to pave a way for his herd of grazing sheep. MacLennan cherrypicks the quiet Segundo (Camilo Arancibia), a mixed-race Chilean to join him and Menéndez also gives him a Texan mercenary called Bill (Benjamin Westfall). The three get on poorly together, with Bill’s disloyal and racist personality a clash with MacLennan’s unpredictability. They effectively set off into the Patagonian landscape where they rape, pillage and blunder the native tribes. 

Contrary to the near-unanimous praise, I didn’t find The Settlers to be particularly engaging, nor does it have much to say which hasn’t already been covered by stronger Westerns. It lacks a character to root for and I just didn’t care for any of the trio. The dialogue is on-the-nose and it never really explores the marginalised tribes. Haberle tries to go for a retro feel with grainy cinematography from Simone D’Arcangelo but it simply appeared grainy to me, rather than the arresting quality they had no doubt intended. Harry Allouche’s playful Spaghetti western inspired score is completely at odds with the grim events being portrayed on-screen.

While it still tells an obvious message, the last act of the film where it shifts to seven years after MacLennan’s expedition is where the film is at its most engaging. The newly formed Chilean government sends a government agent called Vicuña (Marcelo Alonso) to investigate the genocide and the film asks some interesting, if not fully developed questions on MacLennan’s barbarity. While The Settlers is effectively fierce and primitive, it lacks the thrills or playfulness of its Western contemporaries to be truly effective. 

⭐⭐ (Poor)