FILM REVIEW: THE TERRITORY (2022) DIR. ALEX PRITZ
An invader rides his motorcycle through the rainforest fire blaze.
© Alex Pritz/Amazon Land Documentary
Written by Belle McIntyre
There have been endless examples of the oppression or extinction of indigenous people by “advanced” societies as long as there has been civilization. Let’s be honest about the dynamics at play. Civilization is antithetical to the way that populations of indigenous people live in nature. There is an existential belief that those who can control and manipulate their surroundings and populations are entitled to act with impunity. And this is, alas, one of those stories.
Bitaté Uru-eu-wau-wau and members of the Jupaú Surveillance team patrol the river by boat.
© Alex Pritz/Amazon Land Documentary
Deep in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest is a territory inhabited by one of the most remote and primitive cultures – the Uru-eu-wau-wau who live with minimal contact with the modern world. In the 1980’s the Brazilian government designated a protected territory for the Uru-we-wau-wau of which there are only about 200 remaining. It is ravishingly beautiful in the wildest, most untamed way. This area is considered in the maximally important category as the “lungs” of the world. But they are being threatened and encroached upon by illegal Brazilian settlers and farmers, emboldened by Pres. Bolsonaro, who has no affection for the rainforest, who has given them the green light. They are setting fires and cutting down trees. It is catastrophic for the Uru-eu-wau-wau, their way of life, and their ecosystem, which are inextricably bound with our own.
Martins, a settler on protected lands, surveys the road he is building through the rainforest.
© Alex Pritz/Amazon Land Documentary
The tribe decides to select the 18 year old, Bitaté, as their leader. As he is a modern guy he has modern ideas and he manages to partner up with eco-warrior, Neidinha Bandeira to get a movie camera and film exactly what is going on as it happens in real time. This is partially the product of 3 years filming. To be fair, the film is annoyingly fair to the illegal, settlers, would be farmers and land grabbers. Their willful narrow-mindedness is maddening, but not as infuriating as if the the interlopers had been some multi-national conglomerate. So, it is possible to have some empathy for them. At the end, it is not really up to the Uru-eu-wau-wau if the Brazilian government does not enforce the law. It is a complex dilemma and Pritz does not answer the question. But he introduces some different points of view. This film feels totally authentic and might move some hearts and souls to a higher vibration.
