Indigenous people are different from non-indigenous people. They speak a different language. But they are also like other people: They deserve a home. Late in The Territory, Alex Pritz’s documentary about the Uru-eu-wau-wau people of Brazil, a farmer says, “but really we are all human.”
Indeed. But how easy it is to forget.
As the documentary begins, we are informed that the Brazilian government first encountered the Uru-eu-wau-wau in the 1980s and since then the community has grown smaller and smaller. Today, their numbers are down to a couple hundred. We are introduced to the young man who is elected their leader and to an older woman who works as an activist. Both of them have had to wage wars in their own ways against people seeking to invade their lands, and a big part of the problem is the government of Jair Bolsonaro, who came into power in 2018.
In one scene, we are shown a campaign rally led by presidential candidate Bolsonaro. As one of his pledges to the people who have come to hear him speak, he says that if he wins the upcoming elections, he will make sure there “won’t be one more inch of indigenous reserve.” On the day he is pronounced the winner, we see the activist, Neidinha, hold her head in her hands.
But Pritz’s documentary doesn’t spend a lot of time on Bolsonaro’s government directly. The film, for which the community provided some production resources and cinematography, is more concerned with the everyday hopes and fears of people on both sides of the conflict. On the non-indigenous side is a group of farmers led by a man named Sergio. One of the first times he appears onscreen, he gives a measure of the average Brazilian’s aspirations. “For those who live here,” he says, “the Brazilian dream is to own some land and make a living from it.”
As it turns out, bringing this dream to life for both sides becomes a battle. Buoyed by support from politicians, Sergio and his cohort of farmers form an association. He insists that they do everything by the book to prevent legal trouble. At least one farmer, who becomes the third side of the conflict, isn’t swayed by the association’s methods. He decides to go ahead and build a structure on the portion of the Amazon he claims as his. Covering these three sides of the conflict provokes a question: how did Pritz and his crew get access across the board? The inevitable answer is that everybody involved believes their position on the issue is the correct one. With that kind of self-interested blamelessness, it seems obvious that they would not mind the camera’s intrusion.
And even though the government doesn’t get screen time, its inaction speaks loudly. Upon hearing that invaders are heading to the forest, which is being deforested to build a city, Neidinha puts a call through to an agency for Indigenous people. She is told they are not able to help. In a different scene, she explains that the police are useless because they’re no longer inclined to help the community stave off invaders. You get the point: if the invaders, tacitly, are doing things the government is not quite against, it is difficult to tell just who exactly is the criminal entity. Even the language deployed by Sergio is fashioned in such a way that their intentions are almost a necessity. Speaking about his association’s plans, he says that once they can survey the land, the law will give them the authority to “liberate the land”. In that telling, the land is in the wrong hands.
The Territory is quite clear about which side it stands on, even if it uses the fly-on-the-wall technique. But it does show the dangers that come with land disputes. Neidinha is informed that her daughter has been kidnapped. She calls the bluff of her informant but quickly reaches out to her daughter, who doesn’t pick up her phone. When, finally, she sees her daughter, their hug is one of relief. As the film draws to a close, we see her increasing the height of her fence. For their part, the Uru-eu-wau-wau use drone technology and the media to help their situation and tell their story internationally. This film is one product of their new methods, which has led to the capture of dozens of invaders. It will play in festivals around the world because what it deals with is a universal theme. But the film’s success depends on the community receiving the help it needs.
Director: Alex Pritz
Producers: Will N. Miller, Sigrid Dyekjær, Lizzie Gillett, Darren Aronofsky
Executive Producers: Danfung Dennis, Felipe Estefan, Rafael Georges da Cruz, Rebecca Teitel, Alexandra Johnes, Loren Hammonds, Dylan Golden, Brendan Naylor, Andrew Ruhemann, Romain Besson, Philippe Levasseur, Ari Handel
Co-Executive Producers: Tangae Uru-eu-wau-wau, Tejubi Uru-eu-wau-wau
Cinematography: Alex Pritz, Tangae Uru-eu-wau-wau
Editing: Carlos Rojas Felice
Music: Katya Mihailova
Sound Design: Peter Albrechtsen
Production Company: Documist (U.S.)
In Portuguese, Tupi-Kawahiva
Duration: 86 min
