The Hour and Turn of Augusto Matraga

Luiz Carlos Barreto, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, and singer/composer Geraldo Vandré produced this exhilarating western based on João Guimarães Rosa’s Sagarana, a haunting short story collection detailing people of the sertão in the Brazil’s southeastern state of Minas Gerais. It follows the mythical “hero’s journey” of Augusto Matraga (Leonardo Villar), a violent farmer betrayed by his wife and left for dead. After he is rescued by a pair of farmers, Matraga transforms into a man of faith, and his path of contrition is tested when an opportunity for revenge careens toward an unforgettable final act. Featuring an intense score by Vandré (which Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles revived in Bacurau [2019]), The Hour and Turn of Augusto Matraga wisely upends Old versus New Testament lessons and transforms its deceptively simple revenge story into something far more ruminative and vast. Featuring Jofre Soares and Maria Ribeiro, who previously appeared in Barren Lives. 4K restoration courtesy of L.C. Barreto Produções Cinematográficas.