Obviously written and directed by mostly men with no real knowledge of Mapuche history. The parts about her grandmothers teachings, community spirit, and connectedness and defense of the forests of Chile is beautiful. The settings are gorgeous, I had no idea Chile has forests like that. Ok actually really liked the actors, especially Sayen. I just wish they had a better story and direction to work with.
But that's only a small part of the movie. There's a lot of the typical suffering porn that studios insist on for Native movies. In Sayen it takes the form first of her Grandmother being murdered by a young psychopath suffering from the generational trauma from his fathers greed and villainous corporate operations that he is supposed to uphold and expand. His character is pretty well done and believable. Incompetent, vicious and unstable with disastrous consequences for the communities he comes in contact with. But there's too much of him surviving till the end even above a black beret and a Russian mercenary that's been with their family for decades. Not believable at all and just to drive the story of conflict and gross action between him and Sayen. The most believable part is when the team geologist fatally wounds himself accidently stepping in front of an arrow meant for this man. Dumb luck is often how such people survive.
Sayen has trained her whole life to be a warrior for her people. Yet in the movie her movements (and the other warriors) are clumsy. She gets badly hurt every time she falls in a river or encounters one of the bad people even tho they come out largely unscathed - not even bruised. The black berets braids don't even get messed up! The main murderer and this black beret even come out of a river in weather where you can see peoples breathe and they're not even scared, or wet or cold. Supposedly a tiny fire dries them? Typical (maybe unconscious) biases depicting natives as less competent and easily murdered. The Grandmothers murder was unexpected and shocking and believable (even when you know it's coming you don't know how), but Sayen's warrior teacher and friends just get shot TF up so quickly and easily. Dumb.
And lastly it was maddening and silly to have the BS about warriors always only being men. That has never been true for Native societies, it's just a falsehood perpetuated by colonialism so that many Natives don't even know this was untrue. So having it crop up unnecessarily in a movie that handles that matriarchal knowledge and forest protection of her grandmother so well was disappointing. Again it seems like a few things just done to further the action story rather than creating a nuanced and interesting and authentic story.
But that's only a small part of the movie. There's a lot of the typical suffering porn that studios insist on for Native movies. In Sayen it takes the form first of her Grandmother being murdered by a young psychopath suffering from the generational trauma from his fathers greed and villainous corporate operations that he is supposed to uphold and expand. His character is pretty well done and believable. Incompetent, vicious and unstable with disastrous consequences for the communities he comes in contact with. But there's too much of him surviving till the end even above a black beret and a Russian mercenary that's been with their family for decades. Not believable at all and just to drive the story of conflict and gross action between him and Sayen. The most believable part is when the team geologist fatally wounds himself accidently stepping in front of an arrow meant for this man. Dumb luck is often how such people survive.
Sayen has trained her whole life to be a warrior for her people. Yet in the movie her movements (and the other warriors) are clumsy. She gets badly hurt every time she falls in a river or encounters one of the bad people even tho they come out largely unscathed - not even bruised. The black berets braids don't even get messed up! The main murderer and this black beret even come out of a river in weather where you can see peoples breathe and they're not even scared, or wet or cold. Supposedly a tiny fire dries them? Typical (maybe unconscious) biases depicting natives as less competent and easily murdered. The Grandmothers murder was unexpected and shocking and believable (even when you know it's coming you don't know how), but Sayen's warrior teacher and friends just get shot TF up so quickly and easily. Dumb.
And lastly it was maddening and silly to have the BS about warriors always only being men. That has never been true for Native societies, it's just a falsehood perpetuated by colonialism so that many Natives don't even know this was untrue. So having it crop up unnecessarily in a movie that handles that matriarchal knowledge and forest protection of her grandmother so well was disappointing. Again it seems like a few things just done to further the action story rather than creating a nuanced and interesting and authentic story.
