Eureka

A triptych of stories focused on Indigenous culture in the Americas takes the spotlight in the latest feature from one of international cinema’s most exciting auteurs, Lisandro Alonso. A striking opening sequence revisits and remixes his last film Jauja (Festival 2015), reuniting the director with lead actor Viggo Mortenson, who plays a gunslinger looking for his kidnapped daughter. In an abrupt shift of location, filmmaking style, and gaze, the scenario moves to the Pine Ridge reservation in wintry South Dakota where Native American police officer Alaina searches for another missing young woman. And in the final segment, a shape-shifting bird introduces viewers to a forest-dwelling tribe in the Amazon and a community contending with interpersonal rivalries. Employing different cinematic styles and an increasingly dreamlike narrative, Eureka (which premiered at Cannes) is elusive and pointed in its willingness to abandon traditional storytelling methods in favor of something stranger and more magical.