BIRDWATCHERS
Italy, 2008, 108 minutes, Colour.
Abrezio Da Silva Pedro, Ambrozio Vilhalva, Claudio Santamaria, Matheus Nachtergale, Fabiane Perera Da Silva, Chiara Caselli, Leonardo Medeiros.
Directed by Marco Bechis.
Birdwatchers is a film about the Guarani (the tribal group who featured in Roland Joffe’s The Mission). This time the Guarani are centre-screen.
The film, in Portuguese and Guarani, was written and directed by Marco Bechis. Born in Chile but educated in San Paolo and Buenos Aires, he was exiled for political reasons from Argentina in 1977 to Italy. He based his film, Garage Olympo, on the experiences of the Disappeared during the political upheaval in Argentina.
The film goes into the Amazon jungle, shows initially Guarani as the object of tourist curiosity – and then suddenly has them being paid off and going back to their ordinary lives. However, this time they decide to squat outside the farmlands of an owner who has had the property in his family for sixty years. The film highlights the antagonism and clashes between the Indians and the landowners who have cleared the forests for cattle and for crops. The owner puts a guard, called the Scarecrow, in a caravan near the Guarani so that they can be observed.
The film shows the wealthy and indolent lifestyle of the rich families. The film focuses on the daughter, teenage, pot-smoking, wealthy and arrogant. However, she encounters the young shaman-in-training of the Guarani and falls in love with him. He is forbidden to have relationships with women while he is in training. He has dreams which see the future and is being trained to pray to the gods, to eliminate the spirits of evil.
While the film does come to a head and there is some violence, the film shows the two parties in discussion, the role of the law and the government – but no easy solution.
The film is interesting in its portrait of the life of the Guarani, dispossessed, trying to claim some land with their sense of belonging. It is also intriguing in the religious customs of the Indians.
While the film focuses on the Indians of Brazil, the story has been repeated all over the world in different cultures. This film is a contribution to understanding.
1.The Brazilian background, the Guarani, the landowners, the clash about land, the cultivation of the forests, the clash of cultures, law and government intervention?
2.The particular indigenous issues, their universal application?
3.The jungle locations, the town, the shops, the sites for development, the land and the forests, the cultivation, the river? Authentic atmosphere?
4.The musical score, the tones of Brazil, the classical music background? The feel, the mystical, prayers and chants?
5.The reality of the landowners, the government, hard-headed and rational? The shopkeeper as the intermediary? Getting jobs for the Guarani? Giving them credit? Making demands on them? Making contact so that an assassin can be found? The contrast with the mystical, the spirits, prayers to the gods, the talking about the evil spirit in the forest, the sense of evil, dreams and fulfilment? Knowledge, the shaman, the training of Osvaldo, the regulations, Osvaldo and his breaking them? His final screams?
6.The introduction, the tourists, the Indians standing, firing the arrows, audience response in sympathy with the Indians? Their leaving, getting dressed, getting the payment, going back home in the truck?
7.Nadio as the leader, his character, age, dignity? His moving his family, buying the goods, needing credit, selling his horse and cart, bargaining? Getting a lift with the shop owner, squatting outside the land, the confrontation with the owner? Building shelter, setting up camp? Inviting others to join? The shaman and his interpretations? Going to the river to get water across the land, the Scarecrow? The shop owner and his offer of work, Nadio’s refusal, his drinking, his relationship with his son, the son going to work, buying the sneakers, his father disowning him, his hanging himself? The funeral, Nadio’s grief? The gathering of the peoples, the confrontations, the law? Nadio and his being murdered?
8.Indian rights, the land, the role of government, the owners and the 60 years’ occupation, lawyers, the squatters?
9.Osvaldo and his dreams, the people watching him, waking him? Going into training with the shaman, involved in the move, learning the chants, seeing Maria, the swimming, the talking, the taunts, learning to ride the motorbike, the swim, the sexual attraction, the rules, celibacy? His life, his disowning Maria when the move was made? His final screams and the ending?
10.Osvaldo and Iraneu, their friendship, going hunting, coming across the hanged girls, their funerals, the parents disowning the girls, the transition, Iraneu and his father, going to work despite his father, buying the sneakers, coming back home, his father’s anger, his death, the sneakers and the burial?
11.The Indians, the men in the group, the shaman and his getting old, their going to work on the sites, buying the goods, the women and the camp, the sex and the Scarecrow (and his swimming), going to the trailer, getting his gun?
12.The landowners and their easy life, the owner and his attitudes, land in the family? The birdwatchers from Europe, their place in the property, giving the money for work? The young girls, swimming, sunbaking, smoking pot, taunting the Indians, Maria and her showing Osvaldo how to ride the bike, the swimming, the sexual relationship, learning about the Indians – and her leaving after the death of Nadio?
13.The gathering of the great number of people, the confrontation, the lawyers, politicians and speeches, the discussions?
14.The law, arranging for the killer of Nadio, the betrayal, the fate of the traitor?
15.Insight, to peoples and their traditions, their relationship with the land? Justice and the issues not yet settled?
