Political Cinema as the Reproduction of Collective Subjectivity A Case Study of Bacurau (2019)
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article interprets Bacurau (2019) as a cinematic model for the reproduction of collective political subjectivity. Rather than confirming the modern thesis that “the people are missing,” the film stages the reactivation of a historically sedimented communal form grounded in shared memory, spatial practices, and genre transformation. Drawing on Ernesto Laclau’s theory of populist articulation and Alain Badiou’s concept of fidelity to an event, the study argues that Bacurau mobilizes populist aesthetic devices while ultimately anchoring collective agency in loyalty to the Canudos rebellion as an enduring rupture. Through its revisionist western framework and radicalized aesthetics of violence, the film renders perceptible a collective “we” that persists beneath contemporary regimes of enforced individualization.
Source: CINEJ Cinema Journal
Author: Csaba András
Institution: University of Pecs
Language: English
Topic: Cinema History and Criticism
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7166449547
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