Popular reviews

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  Review by Lencho of the Apes ★★★ 2

  One of the earlier performed-in-a-native-laguage ethnofictions from Mexico, if not *the* first. A Mayan village, stricken with drought, seeks out a more powerful distant shaman to bring rain when their local humbug drops the ball. Then, cosmic ironies. The rain-forest exotica and trippy visual elements all seem to be in place, but it would take a better print to appreciate them properly.

  Watchlust, 10/2020: #14/124.

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  Review by Number1Jonah

  i would be hesitant to draw any serious anthropological conclusions about mayan life from this and i wished it was a little more honest in that regard… but a very rare film i’d love to learn more about

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  Review by Karl Janssen ★★★★

  Chilean-born director Rolando Klein filmed Chac in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, using Native nonprofessional actors speaking their Indigenous Mayan languages. The residents of a Mayan village, deprived of rain, lose faith in their shaman and decide to seek help from a mysterious hermit who lives in the mountains. The bulk of the film consists of the preparations for the ceremony through which they ask the rain god Chac to bless their fields with rain. At first it is difficult to tell whether this narrative takes place a thousand years ago or fifty years ago, but then one character mentions white men and whips out a flashlight, one of only a few props that indicate this is set in the…

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  Review by AHSB ★★★★★

  The best stories are universal, timeless, and deceptively simple, tackling the seemingly unanswerable questions of human existence: Why are we here? How do we make sense of the world around us? Why do we have to die? Although this movie is set in modern times, it had an ancient quality about it and could just as easily have taken place hundreds or thousands of years ago. The immersive technique used by the director as well as his decision to cast native people speaking their native language paid off handsomely as the result is a masterpiece of unselfconscious acting, a rarely-depicted language and religion, a well-told and interesting narrative, and a seamless blend of the spiritual and the mundane. The scene invoking Chac was a particular standout, with all elements combining to convey the feeling of what it must be like to experience the presence of the divine.

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  Review by cineurbe

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  "Myth is our window to the dawn of humanity"

  
  "CHAC: The Rain God" is narrative cinema as fable & from the native oral tradition perspective is quite an acomplishment. Anxiety & uncertainty abounds in a Mayan village as their well dries up & there's no sign of rain for their crops, while their local shaman can no longer summon the element, appearing more in touch with the ceremonial liquor than his spiritual role. Ethnographically director Rolando Klein's approach is nearly flawless, but its his premise as allegory that inmerses you defining symbols to what seems a simple story that's translating a more profoundly complex tale of tradition, evolution & survival. When the need comes to the village to find another way to deal with…

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  Review by aloeverga ★★★★

  i loved when the owl duende murked the shit talking foo that didnt trust in the ceremony

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  Review by Mark Garrett

  A seemingly forgotten fable from one-time director Roland Klein: Expressive and visually arresting at the very least, this deserves to be rediscovered.
  www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC07folder/Chac.html
  www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC15folder/ChacDebate.html