Film

The encounter between indigenous people and “civilization” isn’t a one-time event; it’s an ongoing process. Take the case of the Guarani Indians in this engaging drama. The government of Brazil has given them a “nature reserve” to live on, as if they were endangered animals. They’ve adapted enough to play hostile natives for the tourist trade (firing a desultory round of arrows over a passing boatload of camera-hounds), but they hold onto the old ways.

Fed up, Nadio (Ambrósio Vilhava) leads a small group to the roadside on the edge of a farmer’s field and sets up camp, declaring that this used to be a Guarani burial ground. The farmer (Leonardo Medeiros) wants them off the land but seems powerless to get it done. It’s a standoff.

This story could easily fall into oversimplification, but director Marco Bechis complicates things by highlighting the way both sides absorb bits of the other’s culture. A shaman wears a Cubs cap. The farmer’s pool has indigineous art painted on the bottom. And the farmer’s daughter (Fabiane Pereira da Silva) and a young Guarani would-be shaman (Claudio Santamaria) start up a little Romeo and Juliet action. The deeper into the film we get, the richer the characters become, complicating what at first seems like a lecture on the continuing evil of colonialism.