Chile, early 20th century. José Menéndez, a wealthy landowner, hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his extensive property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across vast Patagonia.
With films like this, it becomes evident how elegantly art can convey concepts that written theory often struggles to make intuitive across countless pages. In just 100 minutes, THE SETTLERS demonstrates through imagery in which every frame carries immense weight, how primitive accumulation functions, the role of the nation-state in this process, and how ideology facilitates it. It never preaches, it is relentless and perfectly succinct. Perhaps an even better treatment of the matter than THERE WILL BE BLOOD.
