The Territory                      4 suns

In The Territory we return to Brazil to the Amazon rain forest in this documentary about a small tribe of indigenous people called the Uru-eu-wau-wau who eke out an existence largely separate from the rest of society. Unfortunately for them, with Brazil’s right wing government comes the spreading of farm land into the Amazon that threatens the tribe, which now consists of less than 200 people. The filmmakers filmed both sides of the conflict, staying with the natives in the forest and the farmers as they try to establish a new home. The filmmakers don’t take sides on the issue, but allow the people to tell their own stories. We see also the story of one woman, who is not a native, but joins in their fight to save the land through working with the government and journalists to raise awareness of their plight. To make things even worse for them, the threat of Covid arrived during filming taking the lives of some of the tribe. The importance of the rain forest’s destruction expands with the realization that it threatens to accelerate climate change, bringing the subject to a global significance. The film has to be one of the most challenging to make and at the same time dealing with a subject of the greatest importance.