Program Note
Julia, wife of a wealthy lord living near the Iguazu Falls, has nightmares for several days. The lord builds a fence to ward off the indigenous people, the Guarani tribe, but Julia is still anxious about her son Manuel’s safety. One day Manuel suddenly disappears, and when searching for him, Julia runs into her maid, Kerana, who was believed to have died one year before, under the falls.
Set in a mountainous area of Argentina in the early 20th century, The Returned focuses on Eurocentric hypocrisy, timeless motherhood, and colonial experience in South America using typical horror movie subject matter, such as native people seized with evil spirits, a woman with a nervous breakdown, and a missing child. This three-episode narrative is led by women’s powerful solidarity shared through having children. Julia expresses the essence of the film through an image of confrontation, stabbing a knife to the ruling western power. (Jin PARK)