Sundance 2023 Film Festival – Sorcery has quite an intriguing premise. A young indigenous girl seeks revenge after a German colonist/foreman murders her father in front of her. This has all the potential of an innovative, anti-colonial revenge tale. However, while the film has engaging cinematography and an effecting atmosphere, it never quite casts its spell.

Directed by Christopher Murray, who co-wrote the feature with Pablo Paredes, the film is set in the 19th Century on the island of Chiloé. It stars Valentina Véliz Caileo as Rosa. Minutes into the runtime, sheep are found dead with braids of hair wrapped around their necks. Rosa’s father is blamed for this by a German colonist/foreman, Stefan, played by Sebastian Hülk. Stefan unleashes two snarling dogs upon Rosa’s father, thus slaughtering him in front of her eyes. This makes for a brutal and shocking start to the film. During the rest of the runtime, Rosa pleads with a group of powerful indigenous sorcerers to help her enact justice. She also grows close to the group’s king, Mateo (Daniel Antivilo). The relationship between the two is a highlight, as Mateo becomes a father figure of sorts for the young girl. However, Mateo and others soon face the wrath of the colonists after Stefan’s children go missing and may or may not have been turned into dogs as punishment for the execution of Rosa’s father.

María Secco‘s cinematography here is quite brilliant. She makes the island feel haunting and menacing, with shots of a moody gray sky and waves cracking against the shore as thunder rumbles. The gray images do much in terms of establishing the film’s rather bleak and foreboding tone. Further, the setting lends itself well to the film. The island very much feels alive, with the constant sound of rainfall, birds chirping, and the sea roaring. The island feels both mysterious and ancient, harboring a sort of power that only the ingenious people respect enough to tap into. The performances are generally strong too, especially by Caileo and Antivilo. Hülk, meanwhile, plays a stone-faced villain well who cares nothing for the people whose land he occupies.

While the film has its high points, it’s quite a slow burn, and the pacing makes the viewing experience feel laborious at times. This isn’t a typical revenge tale with a lot of bloodshed. There are moments that show the brutality of the colonists, which make the desire for the ingenious people to enact their revenge that much greater. However, there’s a lot of waiting, in fact too much waiting, until that really happens. The film simply plods along at a sluggish pace to its detriment.

Overall, Sorcery is an atmospheric film, rich with symbolism and stellar cinematography. That said, it’s held back by its sedate pacing and the feeling that the payoff never quite comes.

6 Out of 10