Like noir, the western is a remarkably mutable form that accommodates a spectrum of different films. Jauja falls about halfway between The Searchers and El Topo, drawing western tropes out into the wilds of surrealism but (wisely) stopping short of any overt psychedelia.
The story concerns a Dane named Gunnar Dinesen (Viggo Mortensen) who is posted up with a ragged cavalry division somewhere in the Pampas of Patagonia. It’s unclear exactly what he’s doing there or what the division’s objective is, but at the outset of the film, things are looking pretty fractured, and rumblings indicate we may be flirting with a Heart of Darkness situation…