‘Property’ Movie Review [Fantastic Fest 2023]: An Aggravating Quasi-Home Invasion Thriller
Photo from Fantastic Fest
From Jeff Nelson
From Straw Dogs to The Strangers, the home invasion sub-genre taps into the fear that we are never truly safe — even in the privacy of our own homes. Daniel Bandeire’s Property explores the destruction of safe spaces with an attempt at social commentary that doesn’t really know whose side it’s on.
After a traumatic encounter, Tereza (Malu Galli) becomes a recluse. Her husband buys her a world-class armored vehicle to calm her nerves, driving her to their family’s farm to heal. However, the struggling couple don’t realize that the workers revolted in response to the news that they will no longer be needed, left without a plan for the future. The group decides to take over their employer’s land and their money, but the only thing stopping their plan is the impenetrable vehicle.
Property begins with a cell phone video of the traumatic incident that left the assailant dead and Tereza narrowly escaping with her life. Flashing forward, her husband and daughter worry about the psychological effects it holds over her. Tereza’s character is defined by this incident, never allowing us a larger perspective of who she is before she faces an even more extreme brush with terror.
Bandeire switches the perspective between Tereza and the workers, who are desperate to receive their fair share. Much like Tereza, they’re largely one-dimensional characters, but they’re defined by their desperation that acts as an ever-growing snowball of violence that refuses to stop once it’s rolling. We’re exposed to their heartache and trauma, as well as their desire for a better future, but their characterizations don’t exist beyond their lack of money, only acting as perspective characters to a point in Tereza’s fight for survival. They’re captured as an angry mob, rather than individual people.
Who are we meant to root for here? Property is overtly about classism and rebellion, but the workers are portrayed as inhuman savages. Bandeire wants the audience to feel for Tereza and ultimately find a way out of this situation, although it also feels wrong to be rooting for the dismissive, wealthy family that operates over its workers.
As a survival thriller at face value, Property is more successful. Bandeire knows how to unravel a tense scene and generate feelings of uneasiness. The armored car is a compelling concept that leads to some unsettling images, as the workers try to discover a way to break inside that ranges from physical force to more creative ways of luring her out.
Property is a frustrating eat the rich thriller that wants to have its cake and eat it, too. It’s unquestionably tense, but it plays both sides of the classist divide without nuance. We’re supposed to want Tereza and her husband to make it out alive, while also wanting the working class to overcome the classist barriers that make it impossible for them to rise to greater opportunities. In the end, the moral complexity it’s getting at doesn’t work.
Rating: 2.5/5
Property played at Fantastic Fest 2023 on September 22nd, 2023.
