Sorcery is a folk tale about vengeance.
The main character is an indigenous girl who, at the start of the film, is exactly what the white colonisers want her to be. She is a servant, she is a Christian, her name is Rosa. Despite this, when the settler’s sheep are struck down, he accuses Rosa’s father of witchcraft, sets his dogs on him, and makes her watch as her dad is torn apart. Even when she tries to bury him, the settler’s wife desecrates his grave while Rosa is trying to pray over him, because her father was not a Christian.
Initially she seeks justice the way she should. She goes to the mayor of the nearby town and asks for the arrest of the settler. The mayor is not about to side with some penniless Native girl against a white landowner. He tells her to go to the Church and pray on it.
The person who comes to her aid is Mateo, an indigenous man who lets her stay with him and who educates her more about her people, the Huilliche. When he sees her suffering and how she prays for vengeance, he tries to help her, offering up his services as a brujo, a witch or sorcerer. In retribution for killing Rosa’s father with dogs, he transforms the settler’s sons into dogs.
But the settlers and the townsfolk won’t stand for this, and round up anyone Huilliche they can find, and arrest Mateo. Free but alone, Rosa must decide whether she is willing to follow the path of sorcery herself to get the justice she wants.
A slow, quiet film, brimming with beautiful shots of landscape.