[Contains sloillers]
The film makes a strong reference to the Cangaço movement, led by Lampião (Virgulino Ferreira da Silva), which took place from the 19th to 1930 century in northeastern Brazil, a region affected by a strong drought called Sertão. The region is famous in Brazil for its great hunger and migration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canga%C3%A7o
The cut heads were not created by the director:
https://www.historiadealagoas.com.br/cabecas-dos-cangaceiros-chegam-a-maceio-em- 1938.html
Maybe whoever watches this film from outside Brazil thinks it is quite metaphorical and playful, but it is a futuristic dystopia that seems very real, which frightens us.
The film was satisfactorily received by the public in Brazil (which is not the case with most Brazilian films) because it is a portrait of the country, for all the conjuncture it presents and for the very realistic photography in the combination of Havaianas slippers vs. Nike's bone. Even the photography refers to old Brazilian films called "Nordestern", a Tupiniquim version of "Western".
The symbolism of the film is exciting, to start with the name of the film: Bacurau. ''Bacurau is a bird, not a little bird, that only comes out at night'', and no, it is not extinguishing as the woman from Rio de Janeiro expected. Not in Bacurau! The truth is that this bird is very common in South America, but almost no Brazilian knew what Bacurau meant. I discovered it myself watching the film.
The realistic tone of the film is evident when on one of the television shows executions of criminals taking place in a public square in the city of Sao Paulo, and saying the chaos of the violence we are experiencing wouldn't be surprising if, in the near future, which Bacurau is said to be happening, we reach this point (?). Resistance is the strong theme of the film.
Tony Junior, the mayor who leaves the village but returns at the time of the elections is the faithful representation of politicians concerning the societies that live on the margins of society in Brazil, which are many! And it is not enough, he sells the lives of those citizens to make comradeship with American gringos, another allusion to the constant sale of the country to foreigners, frequent discussion in Brazil.
Education for the government is very well represented, a truck that dumps books and waits for the population to resolve itself. The ironic thing is that it was precisely the school that protected the people of Bacurau from sports hunters.
The museum is another incredible symbolism and has the strongest connection with the Cangaço that is only revealed in the end. The museum is alive, it is not only made of the past, and could have saved the lives of American tourists if they had visited it before.
One of the peculiarities of the film is its cast, which in its majority are not actors, they are people from the region, but it does include strong names of Brazilian dramaturgy, like Sonia Braga who even the Polish people know who she is.
Lunga looks like the true reincarnation of Lampião or even an allusion to Antonio Conselheiro from the so-called Guerra dos Canudos, in the Northeast of Brazil. Lunga overflows genre, it's not him or her, it's the most interesting, dressing as a woman at the time of the battle.
Bacurau also makes explicit and plays in the face of the Brazilian society the North and South division of the country, the south being the rich region economically and culturally accepted, since it received European immigrants. Brazilians from the south consider themselves white but are not recognized as such by American safarists. Even the value of their lives is the same as that of the residents of Bacurau: of no value at all.
The beauty of Bacurau is its defence of community/collectivity, naturalness (environment), autonomy and mainly resistance. Bacurau is the portrait of people who live so forgotten that they disappear from the map (to the sound of True of Spandau Ballet on the soundtrack).