Cine Las Americas 2022 Review: Husek

Fittingly, the Cine Las Americas International Film Festival's screening of Daniela Seggiaro’s Husek began with a land acknowledgement read by festival executive director Gabriel Ornelas.

Set in Santa Victoria, Argentina, the 2SLGBTQ+ supernatural docu-drama tells the story of a Wichí community facing displacement, along with their efforts of retaliation, at the hands of a negligent government’s plan for urbanization.

Hues of yellow, faded greens, and multi-ply sheets of dust make up the landscape with which director Daniela Seggiaro opens the film. The land is perceptibly hot and somehow the dryness, perhaps by the scene’s stillness, can be felt. A young man who we come to know is Leonel is cutting down honeycombs with his machete. His face is covered with a colorful bag made of chaguar, a plant we learn is used by the Wichí people. His grandfather (and chief of his community), Valentino, is rushing him - telling him he must learn to be fast in the face of danger as that is inherent to their experience. This scene, beautiful and tranquil as it is, foreshadows a danger to come.

Screenwriters Seggiaro and Osvaldo Villagra encapsulate the ways a violence onto a community can gradually build rather than sweep all at once. In this case, it begins with foreigners coming to the village seemingly under the guise there is nothing to be lost there, but rather a “step towards progress for civilization” can be made. It is evident the members of the housing and urban development team don’t belong there: fainting and being incapable of withstanding the heat the people native to the land thrive in. Frustrated over the community’s protests, the occupiers say things like: “they should be grateful'' and “they have nothing - they will lose nothing” or simply calling the land, hell.

Husek inspires frustration and devastation, if not for the Wichí people than as a witness to the urban development team’s utter disrespect for the land they are trying to occupy. The film also rouses hopes that Ana, the team’s guilt-ridden architect, might do the right thing, but Seggiaro surprises you with the satisfaction of what happens instead. The land fights back.

---

Husek

Cine Las Americas International Film Festival 2022, June 8-12.