RESILIENCE AND INGENUITY IN BACURAU

RESILIENCE AND INGENUITY IN BACURAU

                                       -Santhwana Thomas

Bacurau is a Brazilian award-winning,avant-garde film of 2019.This film is the brainchild

of Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Mendonca Filho.This film depicts the triumphant story of a minority of

people who refused to succumb to the rivals at the face of combat.They fought against the

adversaries with much grit and ingenuity.At the onset itself we are told that the sequences portrayed

in the film foreshadow events which would take place a few years later.We are to look at this film

from a futuristic perspective.As the film commences we are shown coffins which in itself signifies

death.We also witness coffins being crushed under the wheels of a truck which denotes even more

violence ahead.The following scenes direct us towards a house where everything is set for the funeral

of the Matriarch.Flabbergasting the audience,there comes an old woman named Domingas hurling

reproaches at the dead woman.All these tidings create an unpleasant aura around the

audience.Perhaps the makers of the film are in a way preparing the milieu of the audience for the

impending savagery. The movie begins with Teresa(one of the protagonists)returning home to take part in

her grandmother’s funeral.We are given a vivid picture of the village,the villagers,their culture and

customs.Though the movie takes a smooth course along the first half,the peripeteia arises when a

school teacher discovers that Bacurau has disappeared from the map while trying to locate it

in his tablet with his students.This incident pushed him into perplexity and they try to locate it in the

school’s computer,but in vain.The map which hung over the wall showed Bacurau,so the

disappearance of the village from the electronic gadgets was a recent manifestation.This was an

epiphany to the teacher that something had gone wrong with his village.Meanwhile the village would

be bereft of telephone signals and the truck which usually brought water to the village would be shot

at.All these occurrences bewilder the inhabitants of the village.Eager to know the culmination of

these conflicts?Give a watch to the Cannes Award Winning box-office sensation Bacurau.But if you

are a bit squeamish, this is not your cup of tea!Because shocking scenes,gross brutality including

decapitation is rampant in this film as it is inevitable to escalate the upshot of the events filmed. Resilience is one of the most fascinating aspects which should be appreciated in this

film.Their plight was such that they never knew what lain in store for them.One morning they woke

up to the fact that the truck which brought water to their village had gun shots,their village was

deprived of telephone signals,their village had disappeared from the map,a couple of strange bikers

had come and enquired about their village.Their agony was accentuated by the mysterious murders

that took place around the premises of the village.This predicament puzzled them.No idea passed

their brain.They didn’t know the motive or the force behind this brutality.They were numb with

terror.But after the murder of a kid they realized that it was high time they reacted.They were

desperate to prove to the opponents that they were invincible.The result was a series of loathsome

bloodshed.The rivals were brutal but the people of Bacurau were more brutal.Their revolt was an

unnerving experience to the opponents.The villagers showed their insurgence by hanging the blood- stained clothes of the slain villagers in expanse.From that moment they played the game only to

win.For the existence of their village and their own survival the compassionate villagers had become

blood-thirsty murderers.In the end they came out triumphantly.

Ingenuity is akin to resilience.Had they not acted according to the situation they wouldn’t

have won over the opponents.The combatants were well organized than they were.They had lethal

modern weapons and also trained men to execute their plans.Unlike them,the villagers had neither a

well-organized plan nor a well-equipped army.But they were prudent enough to make use of the

available men and the accessible resources.The villagers were much methodical under their agile and

dauntless warrior Lunga.They dug large bunkers underground which was intended for the villagers to

hide and some of them stayed indoors and some fought by stealthy means.Because the uninvited

peril demanded this disorganized strife.They had no weapons at hand so they got hold of them from

the Bacurau Museum.The vengeful villagers moved vehemently and the vanquished enemies were

killed except the leader who was later seized and incarcerated in the under ground pit.The corrupt

mayor was also punished.In the end we find a woman asking another not to wash away the blood

stains on the wall.Perhaps she wanted it to remain as a symbol for their victory.It was easy for the

inhabitants of Bacurau to give up and accept defeat.But they did not take that option.Instead they

created one for themselves--RESILIENCE THROUGH INGENUITY!