In the near future, the people of Bacurau, a fictional settlement in the also fictional municipality of Serra Verde, in western Pernambuco, witness a series of unusual events, including telephone signals going down, the settlement unexplainably disappearing from online maps, flying saucer-shaped drones chasing travelers and a couple of motor bikers from Rio de Janeiro passing by. This all happens after the death of Carmelita, a matriarch of the village, and villagers and other relatives have gathered for her funeral. During this time we learn there is a dispute over water rights from the local river, with water being dammed upstream in a collusion of which the mayor of Serra Verde, Tony Junior, is a part. He visits Bacurau in his re-election campaign and is clearly despised by the people of the village. In the meantime, the villagers are forced to have water delivered by truck from a source farther upstream. One of the curious goings-on is that the truck is shot at, resulting in multiple leaks. When dozens of horses show up in town, two men are sent to investigate the nearby farm from where they presumably escaped and find out the whole family murdered. As the two men leave the property, they are executed by the couple on the motor bikes. This couple rendezvous with a group of foreigners lead by Michael and are reprehended for killing the two men, since killing will allow the foreigners to score "points". After receiving unheard instructions through earpieces, the foreigners execute the motor-bike couple and argue over who did the killing and is entitled to more points. As the death toll rises and a 9-year-old boy is slaughtered in cold blood, Pacote deduces the town will be attacked and leads efforts to prepare the people to defend themselves. When the foreigners arrive, they are all killed by the locals, except for Michael, who ends up captured. Soon after the battle, Tony Junior, already persona non grata in Bacurau, comes to town and Michael calls his name; Tony denies knowing him. The mayor is sent away half-naked and tied up to a donkey while Michael is buried alive in an underground cell while shouting that "this is only the beginning".
Bacurau was filmed in the village of Barra in the municipality of Parelhas and in the rural area of the municipality of Acari, at the Sertão do Seridó region, in Rio Grande do Norte.
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 139 reviews, with an average rating of 7.72/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Formally thrilling and narratively daring, Bacurau draws on modern Brazilian sociopolitical concerns to deliver a hard-hitting, genre-blurring drama." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "Universal acclaim".
Release
It was released by Vitrine Filmes in Brazil and SBS Distribution in France. Its North American release was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, prompting the distributor Kino-Lorber to seek alternate means. It created a "virtual cinema" distribution model in which it partnered with some 150 independent theaters in North America. The first run of the film streams in an exclusive limited release window through the theatre's websites. Kino-Lorber shares the revenues with the theatres.
