Formal selection – a given matter
The previous feature film by the duo Joao Salaveza and Rene Nadir Masora, Jungle song, was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. The result of a nine-month long immersion among the Craho people, in the protected territory of the state of Tocantins, in northeastern Brazil, the film – at the crossroads of anecdotal and anthropological documentary – stunned with its poetic charm revealed every shot. We find this magic in Buriti flower, filmed in the same place, in collaboration with the same people from Kraho whose story comes to us, right here, through several eyes. In particular, the young Ilda Patbro Krahu, Hijno Krahu, and his wife, Luzia Croacwijk Krahu.
Done slowly, the journey touches on the sacred, to the rhythm of daily tasks, gestures, and ancestral rituals, carving poetic territory as it progresses. which acts as an elixir that sharpens our senses and takes us back to the beginning of humanity. The forgotten memory is suddenly revived by the Krahu people whose reality and imagination are connected to ours. This link was first re-established by the Portuguese João Salaveza and the Brazilian Rene Nader Masora Buriti flower.
From there, a long story is patiently detailed as three eras intersect, respond to each other and sometimes merge, through their eternal renewal. Each relates to bouts of shock. The Krahu massacre of 1940 was perpetrated by farmers who wanted to take over their land. The persecution they suffered during the military dictatorship in Brazil (from 1964 to 1985). And those who are still victims of them today, especially during Bolsonaro’s presidency, with the implementation of his policy in favor of agribusiness, to the detriment of the indigenous population.
The voices of the elders
This story told by the film, without having to leave the forest – this original cradle that gradually becomes familiar to us – makes the voices of the old people heard and the songs that call to the souls. It brings back, through their words and their connection to the world, the memory of the Krahu people. Finally, it carries the voice of present and future generations. Which takes us, in the last part of the film, on the roads leading to Brasília, where the indigenous people planned to gather, in traditional clothes, in order to demonstrate and defend their rights before the Supreme Court.
You have 37.75% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
