Recent westerns run a little bit over two hours, some of them depicting the same action as the classics. Most though, even the action ones, rethink its heroes and criticize a genre that puts whiteness within its centre. Eureka, from director and writer Lisandro Alonso, gives viewers vignettes that puts Indigenous characters in the forefront.

Well, that’s true for the most part in Eureka, running at less than two and a half hours long. The only anomaly here is the first twenty minutes that depicts an 1870s gunslinger, Murphy (Viggo Mortensen), rescuing his daughter. The rest of the film depicts a contemporary young Sioux basketball coach, Sadie (Sadie Lapointe) and her cop sister Alaina (Alaina Clifford), and a contemporary Amazonian Native who disappears (Adanilo).

So let’s start with the good parts in a film, Eureka, where an Argentinian tries to depict Indigenous people. Some encounters feel slightly Euro centric but it at least gives some of the Indigenous characters the upper hand. One example is a scene between Sadie and Maya (Chiara Mastroianni), when Sadie politely teaches Maya about Indigenous suffering.

There seems to be a collaborative air in this film, as if the actors reflect some real life experience. It also goes without saying that Eureka‘s best asset is Lapointe’s performance, evincing quiet confidence despite her age. Viewers see this when she’s with Maya as well as when she’s around the family members she’s close with.

The middle part in Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka is long enough and has a story with enough meat on it, so it feels like a baffling decision to make this one big part of a film in three parts. It also boggles the mind what the other two story lines have to do with this one that has more substance than others.

Alonso also fills Eureka with scenes where the characters show subtle emotions, which is fine, but they feel unearned. It relegates conflict, for the most part, in the background, leaving characters to get what they want. It’s an optimistic worldview, sure, but it doesn’t make for compelling cinema.

Eureka bills itself as one where Indigenous characters feel their existential side as well as one criticizing Western capitalism. The latter is a big component in the Amazonian scenes, an aspect that need to be stronger. We’re here for a film that’s two and a half hours long that’s only capable of saying one thing, if that.

Eureka, from director and writer Lisandro Alonso, comes soon on MUBI.