People from the Heart of the Earth

The collective Guahu’i Guyra spent three years filming their people, the Guarani-Kaiowá, original inhabitants of a piece of land in Brazil. Much of of their ancestral lands have been destroyed by monoculture and deforestation. In the small territory they managed to retake, a few families try to live according to their traditional way of life, devoting a lot of attention to each other and their environment. The camera is part of their daily life, and the day finishes in pitch darkness with a conversation about time. The film thus organically explores the history of this Guarani-Kaiowá village (tekoha). They have been struggling for more than 30 years to reclaim the land of their ancestors. A nighttime guerrilla raid provides a moment of excitement in a film that is otherwise meditative, and sometimes hypnotic, with chants, prayers and music. Nature is omnipresent — in the blazing sun, the mysterious moon, and the sounds of insects, birds and the pattering rain. In the lightning, which is the sacred word of the creators of the world. And, just as much, in the oral traditions about earth, stone and crops, which form a spiritual common thread running through the film. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)