Tuesday, May 16, at 3 a.m., Ehjak, 22, left the village. Take the motorbike to reach the small town of Itacaga via the track. Then, from there, it’s a 9-hour bus ride to Palmas, the very young capital of the state of Tocantins, 700 kilometers north of Brasilia. After obtaining a passport there, he traveled to São Paulo, and from there to Madrid and then Lisbon. There, he wanted to discover the Tower of Belém, which he saw, on the 16thH In the last century, the Portuguese set out to conquer Brazil, their native land in the Amazon region. Finally, after finding Hijno, the shaman, and his wife, Crokweg, he joins Cannes.
Ejak is karahu. The main protagonist of the first feature film by Joao Salaveza and Rene Nadir Masora, Jungle songSpecial Jury Prize in 2018 at the Cannes Film Festival Buriti flower, who also participated in the script. When he is not making films or participating in village business, Ejak is studying to be a nurse. “To take care of my community. But I also want to learn more about forest medicine.”
Like Hyjno. The shaman is asked how he gained his knowledge. A look of doubt and a little annoyed: he hasn’t learned, it’s the spirits that guide him. “When someone gets sick, I try to understand what’s inside them, and then I go into the woods to look for the product that will cure them.”
At the table of a restaurant installed on one of the beaches of Cannes, he tastes fish fillets hidden under a layer of green puree. Grimace nodded by wearing his traditional feather headdress as a pretense. It is not often that the Kraho leave their lands. The village of Hijno, Croacweg and Ihjak has a population of 650.
Invisible minorities and forgotten battles
The population of Krahu is 4,000 people. Knowing that there are 300 tribes of more than a million Indians in total, Lula’s appointment, since his re-election, as Minister for Indigenous Peoples, is an event. Hijno, Croakweg and Ihjak nod their heads positively: “It’s a guajara, but it works for all of usHyjno continues. For us, it’s a bit like having a boss now. »
When we know that, for the slightest decision, the village meets and debates for several days to reach a decision in a democratic process without hierarchy, where every vote has equal value, we measure progress. “This is only the beginning. We have to believe it. Give her time to take her signs. I hope she will still be in touch with the reality of the natives, that she will not forget us… and convince Lola…” A film festival, it has always been a sounding board for invisible minorities and their forgotten struggles.
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