This co-production with Argentina, Denmark, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Taiwan, described by the critics of El Pais as a historical denunciation with the nerve of a wild western and adult adventure, is the southern nation’s candidate for the Oscars.
The film tells the story of the end of the 19th century, when sheep ranches covered more and more territory in Chilean Patagonia, according to the specialized film site Filmaffinity.
In 1893, Segundo, a Chilean half-breed, Maclennan, an English military man, and Bill, an American mercenary, set out on an expedition on horseback to delimit and claim the lands that the State has granted to the rancher Jose Menendez.
What begins as an administrative expedition turns into a violent hunt of Onas, the Amerindian natives of the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, in the southernmost part of the continent, nowadays a territory divided between the states of Argentina and Chile.
The Settlers arrives in Havana with nominations this year for best film at the Cannes, France; Tokyo, Japan; and best Latin American film at Mar del Plata, Argentina; and the Forqué awards, given by Spain’s Egeda producers’ association.
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