Chilean director Felipe Galvez's debut, The Settlers (Los colonos), exudes exceptional artistic and conceptual precision. This brutal anti-western film deals with the topics of colonialism and power relations in a skilful and insightful way, deconstructing the mentality of the oppressor and analyzing the nature of violence. "Your sheep (...) have now become such vermin and so wild that they can eat and digest a whole man," is the quote that opens the film and in which lies the essence of the cruelty of this world.

The plot follows three mercenaries – a Scotsman MacLennan, a Texan named Bill and a Chilean mestizo named Segundo – who were hired by the landowner Menéndez to "clean up" his property from the indigenous population, all ostensibly for the purpose of undisturbed grazing of his sheep. These characters are simply but meaningfully presented – MacLennan and Bill are ruthless reminders of the horror of dehumanization and the feeling of superiority that comes after unimaginable cruelties - for them, this venture is nothing more than a game hunt. Segundo, on the other hand, is a man who is between two worlds – close-ups of his face tell us about the horror, agony and inevitability of the situation he is in – for the sake of his own survival, he participates in such a feverishly distressing expedition, and yet his rebellion is visible and always present.

It is a work that, in addition to the story, attaches great importance to aesthetics – the choice of colour leaves the impression of slow but eternal combustion. Dim tones dominate, with reddish and greenish shades that are saturated yet washed out, like blood constantly seeping into the soil. Each scene is meticulously composed, sometimes the movements of the body are minimized so that it seems as if we are watching a painting. This visual approach, combined with reduced dialogues whose performance is somewhat overstated and theatrical, contributes to a sense of fairytale-likeness, onyricity and mystification.

Many genre elements of classic westerns are noticeable – magnificent awe-inspiring totality of landscapes and evocative music that accompanies a group of riders, but the myth of the honorable cowboy and noble feats, which Hollywood has propagated through this type of film, is turned upside down and presented in its heartlessness and cruelty. This procedure also examines the very role of the film media in shaping reality and erasing history by denigrating and ignoring heinous crimes and glorifying nations built on the hills of dead bodies. The meaninglessness of social hierarchies and the refusal to withdraw from current social orders occurs at every step – when Bill, after a colonel invites them for a drink, finds out that his companion is not a lieutenant but an ordinary private, he wonders how it is possible for them to sit at the same table. The knot and the cycle of eternal oppression and repression are the legacy of civilisation, despite this, the monstrosity and depravity of colonial conquest and genocide have never been relativised here – massacre is massacre and violence is stripped bare without any glorification. When the former oppressor MacLennan experiences an act of atrocious brutality in the form of his own rape, there is not a classic spectator catharsis achieved with revenge, but a reflection of patterns of abuse of power.

The Settlers are not a story with a happy ending, but an important one, although painful and difficult to endure, facing the real horrors that led to the extermination of entire nations in the name of creating modern societies. Really, is there value in blood-soaked wool?