Eureka

Lisandro Alonso / France, Portugal, Germany, Argentina & Mexico / 2023 / 146 min

Nobody makes films like Lisandro Alonso. With his first films, the Argentinian wizard laid the groundwork for the minimalist ‘Slow Cinema’ movement that characterised the 00s, but with his last two films – ‘Jauja’ from 2014 and the new ‘Eureka’ – he has made an unexpected move into an unknown and imaginative territory. ‘Eureka’ is a cinematic tale of transformation in three parts that may/may not be connected by a cosmic, post-colonial dream logic. First, we meet Viggo Mortensen as a vengeful cowboy in the Wild West, before jumping through time and space to the present-day Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where a female police officer (a brilliant Alaina Clifford) does what she can to help her people among the area’s vulnerable indigenous population. The third instalment is set in the Brazilian rainforest in the 1970s. The best way to experience ‘Eureka’ is to immerse yourself in its dreamlike flow and find your own path through it.