It’s kind of hard to judge this Brazilian film. At first it seems strange but very promising with what looks like a near-future dystopia setting. Then when we learn of the plot by the evil Americans, I feel like it takes a sharp dive in quality. But then when we see the villagers’ response, things get awesome again. Wikipedia classifies its genre as Weird Western, one of the more unusual classifications, and it sounds about right to me.

Bacurau is an isolated town in Brazil whose existence has been wiped from online maps and whose water supply has been cut off. But there are still people living there and they are defiant against anything resembling government authority. When the water truck that the town is dependent on arrives full of bullet holes, this presages more trouble for the town. A nearby horse farm is attacked by unknown assailants and everyone living there killed. A couple of motorcyclists come into town, claiming to be tourists but install a device to block phone signals. A drone with a exterior shell that makes it resemble a classic UFO is seen on the outskirts. We learn that a group of thrill-seekers, mostly Americans, have targeted the town, aiming to massacre everyone in it with vintage weapons just for fun. What they don’t realize is that the town has a history of resistance against incursions by outsiders and the villagers are able to call for help from a group of armed bandits.

One can tell that this is set in a kind of dystopia in the opening scene as when one of the residents return with much needed supplies on the water truck, they pass by many coffins by the roadside and this is apparently normal. The town has its own school and clinic and gets by on its own. Some residents are regarded as notorious criminals and murderers by the government but are seen as local heroes. Strange as the town seems to us with its casual disregard of the law, the film does establish a strong sense of place for Bacurau and we see that it has a strong, vibrant community. But then everything threatens to go downhill when we learn that main story is about foreigners planning to take advantage of the town’s isolation to play at being soldiers and shoot everyone. It seems like such a cheap, shallow plot for such an interesting setting, especially with the crass racism of the whites who are basically caricatures of Trump supporters. Even if we know that the villagers will somehow prevail in the end, it’s hard to watch the rednecks being perfectly willing to gun down children.

Happily, directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles do manage to avoid turning this into an action movie. While the American tourists fetishize violence, the film itself does not. When the residents of Bacurau resort to violence to defend themselves, they are absolutely brutal about it, even taking psychotropic drugs so that they don’t hold back. Naturally the foreigners don’t like it much when they find that their would-be victims are able to fight back. The undercurrent of anti-colonial sentiment is evident as is the racism of the foreigners. More interesting here is the anti-authoritarian character of the community which makes them somewhat laissez-faire even when it comes to regulating themselves. It is perfectly okay for example in their little town for a local prostitute to do her trade out in the open. There are no great lessons to impart here but I did enjoy the essential honesty of this characterization. It’s not clear to me however that the community truly is sustainable. They do rely on water and electricity from the outside and clearly must possess some means to pay for it.

The result is a film that is distinctively Brazilian and also at least partly in the science-fiction genre. It has enough action that it would probably entertain mainstream audiences but it doesn’t pander to the violence and is not stupid. I particularly love how the film emphasizes that they do live in the modern world and so happily use their phones to record videos of the payback they meted out, perhaps to use as warning any more outsiders trying to butt in. Overall this is a pretty unique film and is much better than one might initially give it credit for.