‘Bacurau’ Comes to the U.S. and Brings Critiques of Colonialism With It
The Brazilian indie darling carries a class critique, not unlike that in ‘Parasite’
Bacurau, the Brazilian Western/thriller hybrid that took home the Jury Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, finally opens in the U.S. today. Set in a not-so-far future, the dystopian epic takes place in a world where climate change and late-stage capitalism have imploded into cruelty, neglect, and water-hoarding. Bacurau is, at its core, a story about class and race, not unlike Parasite or Us. Through its depiction of a global racial hierarchy, the film offers an unflinching critique of capitalism that has a lasting effect.
The story begins as the fictional town of Bacurau is mourning the loss of a matriarch, Carmelita, and is suffering from an imposed water shortage. Cut off from the rest of the country—aside from one precarious road—the town consists of mostly black and brown people who depend on a daily water truck to survive. They are Nordestinos, or northerners, who have been deliberately forgotten and left in poverty and neglect by the mostly white, urban, and southern parts of Brazil — perhaps the only part of the country that benefits from American imperialism. Because of its remote location and its neglected population devastated by climate…
