Chilean filmmaker Felipe Gálvez’s “The Settlers” is an incredible film by any measure. Still, it’s even more astonishing to consider when you see it as his directorial debut, which he wrote as well, with Antonia Girardi in collaboration with Mariano Llinás.
A stunning revisionist Western about colonialism, “The Settlers” is set In Chile in 1901, where three horsemen are paid to protect a vast estate. Accompanying a British soldier and an American mercenary is a mixed-race sniper who realizes that his true mission is to kill the indigenous population.
The trio of riders is played by Mark Stanley, Camilo Arancibia, Benjamin Westfall, Chilean veteran Alfredo Castro (known for the films of Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain) plays the estate owner, and the film also stars Mishell Guaña, Sam Spruell, Marcelo Alonso, and Adriana Stuve.
“The Settlers” is the rare debut that went straight to the Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere at the 76th edition in May 2023. It competed in the Un Certain Regard section and was honored with the FIPRESCI Prize, becoming the first Chilean production to win that award. It was also selected as the Chilean entry for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards, no small feat and a testament to the fever-dream vision Gálvez created.
And “The Settlers” is hard to pinpoint as one thing. It might be a historical Western on the surface, but it has excellent, well-shot action and energy; it also has a nightmarish mood at times, surreal tangents, chilling sequences, and sweeping vistas; the film takes many turns and never loses a step or beat, seemingly influenced by a lot of different kinds of cinema. It’s also a bruising drama about many of the horrors and atrocities committed in the colonialist ages. Our review described it as “a scorching Western on Chile’s blood-soaked national myth” and wrote, “With the grittily stylized ‘The Settlers,’ an artist obliterates all sugarcoating to exhibit a burdensome truth.”
The many stylistic influences perhaps speak to Gálvez’s omnivorous taste. He grew up on “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” (honestly, you can feel that influence too); he loves Kubrick, Hitchcock, David Lynch, and art films and seems to have been brought up on a steady diet of all kinds of cinema. With “The Settlers” now in theaters on MUBI, we spoke to the filmmaker about The Movies That Changed His Life.
The best moviegoing film experience you ever had.
I got to know many of my favorite films by watching them on VHS tapes or on poor-quality digital files; it was the only way I could have access to them. A few years ago, at the Berlin Film Festival, I got a chance to see a restored copy of “Rebels of the Neon God,” Tsai Ming Liang’s first film. The film was screened in an IMAX theatre; it was beautiful to rediscover it on a huge screen and enjoy it with 1000 people, hearing the sound of the city and seeing the real colors; it was a really touching experience for me.
The first film you saw that made you realize you wanted to be a filmmaker.
I think when I saw “A Clockwork Orange” in the Kubrick DVD box set that came out in the late ’90s, I started to look at cinema in a different way. I liked the film and started watching it over and over, many times. It was the first time I realized that I was interested in studying films – not only following the story but also understanding other components such as color, music, and costumes. I also remember that it made me very uneasy because there were things I didn’t understand, but I didn’t care because there was something stronger in it, something I found mesmerizing when watching it. It had an irony that I hadn’t seen in cinema until that moment.
The first film you saw that made you realize you could be a filmmaker.
I don’t remember a specific film that made me want to become a filmmaker, but I do remember the type of cinema that made me think that maybe I could make a film, too. It was Latin American cinema of the time from the late ’90s to the late 2000s—that was crucial for me. I would watch Argentinean films and Mexican films, and I also started going to the cinema to watch Chilean films. When I saw stories that were closer to me, in my language, about our peculiar characteristics, films that talked about our history or showed stories that felt closer to me, I realized that I would love to be able to make a film myself and that I wanted to build images, as well.
The movie that always makes you cry (or the movie that is your emotional comfort food).
“Missing” by Costa-Gavras is a film about the Chilean dictatorship, shot in the 1980s in Mexico but set in Chile. It is the story of a father who goes searching for his son, who has gone missing; while doing so, he discovers the monstrosities of the dictatorship. It is one of the best films about the history of Chile. I like to rewatch it from time to time and cry a little. I like crying when I watch films—sometimes because I’m moved by the story, sometimes just because I’m moved by what an image manages to convey. It’s nice to cry in the dark, in the company of others.
The movie that always freaks you out/makes you scared.
I consider myself a fearful person, I get scared quite easily, that’s why I tend to avoid gory slasher horror movies because I honestly don’t enjoy them. I prefer psychological horror films. What scares me the most in cinema are things I perceive as close to me, things I feel could actually happen in real life. “Funny Games” by Haneke is a film that throws me into a panic every time I watch it in both of its versions. It’s a movie that has forever ruined my idea of chilling out in a remote country house, in the middle of nowhere.
The film you’ve rewatched more than any other.
I like to study Alfred Hitchcock’s films. I think “Vertigo” and “Psycho” must be the films that I have seen the most times, and every now and then, I go back to them to study them again and again. I like to understand how he builds suspense and intrigue and how he handles the information he gives the audience. Hitchcock is a director who plays a lot with his audience, someone who makes the viewer an accomplice in the story.
The movie you love that no one would expect you to love.
I really like to watch all the blockbusters of each year. The best of these recent hits for me is “Barbie.” I found it to be a very ironic and critical film, which takes us away from the superhero movies, which I found quite boring. It’s a very mainstream movie, but it sneaks in a lot of interesting things.
The movie that defined your coming-of-age/high school experience.
I would say that my high school experience is defined by David Lynch’s films precisely because I didn’t understand that period of my life very well. I felt lost, anxious, curious, like a rebel, dark, happy, and unhappy at the same time. I remember watching “Mulholland Drive” when I was finishing high school and feeling a very strange connection with that movie, a movie that at that time I didn’t understand very well in terms of its context, but I knew I liked and enjoyed watching it. I think that’s how I remember high school a little bit.
The movie that defined your childhood.
My childhood was spent between “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones,” which I watched on Beta Max almost every day. It was part of my routine; I was a bit bored watching TV, and I preferred to come home after school and watch these movies—they were the only ones in my house that were not cartoons that I found interesting.
What’s a movie that you love that is vastly underseen by the moviegoing public that you recommend?
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s “Ordet,” simply because I believe it is a masterpiece. I find that Dreyer is a man who was well ahead of his time in visual, structural and narrative terms. He is a virtuoso of the art of cinema that every cinephile should be familiar with and take pleasure in.
