In the 1880s, Danish Captain Gunnar Dinesen is in Argentina with his teenage daughter Ingeborg who asks him if she can have a dog—one that will follow her wherever she goes. Dinesen is propositioned by the rutting Lieutenant Pittaluga who asks him for permission to take Inge to a dance in exchange for one of his horses. In clumsy Spanish Dinesen refuses, stating that Inge is his daughter. When Dinesen warns Inge that Pittaluga is too fond of young girls and she should not go near him, she asks why she ever would. Unbeknownst to her father, Inge is already involved with a young soldier named Corto. Corto tells Pittaluga and Dinesen about the rumors that Zuluaga, an officer who inexplicably disappeared into the desert, is leading a group of bandits and wearing a woman's dress. The men tell Corto to go into the desert and bring them something tangible as proof that Zuluaga is still alive. During the night Inge and Corto run off together. Though Pittaluga offers to retrieve Inge, Dinesen insists on going alone. Heading out into the desert he eventually encounters a mortally wounded man whispering the name Zuluaga. He later finds the dying Corto, with his throat cut, and demands of him the whereabouts of his daughter. Laying aside his rifle and hat, Dinesen with revolver in hand goes to investigate a suspicious sound. While the distraught Dinesen investigates the area near the helpless Corto, his horse, hat, and rifle are stolen by one of the natives and Dinesen is forced to continue on foot through the inhospitable desert. Driven onward in the search for his daughter, he continues on in the direction the indigenous man went. As Dinesen wanders through the desert, he sees a dog who leads him first to a toy soldier that Corto had given to Inge and then to a Danish-speaking elderly woman who lives in a cave. She tells him her husband died of a snake bite. Captain Dinesen tells the woman that he is looking for his daughter and, as the conversation unfolds, it is gradually revealed that the woman is his daughter. She tells him to come back whenever he likes and he wanders out into the desert again. In the present day, a young girlwakes up in a mansion in Denmark and goes to see her dogs. She is distressed by the fact that one dog has been scratching his fur off and the hound-keeper tells her it is because he is nervous and perplexed by her long absences. The girl takes the dog for a walk in the woods around her home and finds a toy soldier on the ground. She picks it up, and then hearing a sound from her dog, she goes to look for him. Finding only ripples spreading on a pond and no sign of the dog, Ingeborg casts the toy soldier into the pond.
Jauja received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 89%, based on 61 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Jauja will prove haunting for those lured in by its deliberate pace and lovely visuals, though it may test some viewers' patience." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 77 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Slant Magazines Jake Cole gave the film three-and-a-half stars and described it as "refreshingly absurdist".
