South American film director tells story about the sufferings of an indigenous tribe

Grandesso Federico has an exclusive interview with Paraguayan director Paz Encina about her film EAMI, which won the Tiger award at the Rotterdam Film Festival 2022.

Eami means ‘forest’ in Ayoreo. It also means ‘world’. The indigenous Ayoreo-Totobiegosode people do not make a distinction: the trees, animals, and plants that have surrounded them for centuries are all that they know. They now live in an area experiencing the fastest deforestation on the planet. Paraguayan director Paz Encina travelled to Chaco for this film. She immersed herself in Ayoreo-Totobiegosode mythology, and listened to heart-rending stories about how the people are being chased off their land. Based on the knowledge she acquired, she made a dreamy, magic-realist film about a little girl called Eami. After her village is destroyed and her community disintegrates, Eami wanders the rainforest - writes Gradesso Federico.

Paz ENCINA (b. 1971, Asunción, Paraguay) obtained a Master's in Cinematography in 2001. She has won several awards for her films. From 2002 to 2003 she taught audio-visual expression and directing at the University of Asunción and at the Paraguayan Art Academy. Hamaca Paraguaya (2005) won the Un Certain Regard FIPRESCI prize at Cannes. Thereafter, Encina directed short films (the Río Paraguay series, Viento Sur), a documentary (Ejercicios de memoria) andEAMI – La memoria del monte, selected for the IFFR Tiger Competition 2022.

To begin with, where did the idea for this story come from?

Paz Encina:I wanted to tell a love story that was as conventional as possible and I told a friend who told me that this story was in the Totobiegosode community, so I decided to go therey. When I arrived, they told me that yes, this story existed, but that they weren't interested in talking about it at all, so I asked them what they wanted to talk about and that's when the possibility of making the film came up, which came to me almost like a destiny...

What role does nature plays in the film? Nature seems to be a 'flesh and blood' protagonist.

PE:The Totobiegosode don't differentiate between animals, humans and plants, so what surrounds us within nature has the same importance as it can have for any person and that's why the whole bush is as much a protagonist as Eami and her friends. This was something that I actually experienced with them - Lucas, the boy who is looking for his bird, actually had a bird with whom he had a very close relationship, his name is Miacacái, and while he was filming and as we didn't film near the community but about 3,000 kilometres away, Lucas was very worried about having left his bird, he thought that without him, he was going to die.

What is the current situation in your country regarding the expulsion of indigenous people?

PE:With the Ayoreo people specifically, there is currently a precautionary measure against deforestation, but everything has come to a standstill because of the pandemic. They themselves take care of their territory and what they most want is that the territory in which they think there are still Ayoreo living in voluntary isolation be preserved, but deforestation does not stop, and the situation is always delicate because they think that their own species could disappear.

What was your encounter with these indigenous peoples like? How did you relate to them?

PE:That's a good question, because it's a community that is not so easy to reach. I have a friend, José Elizeche, the same friend who took me to the community. He is a communicator and has been working with indigenous communities for 20 years and he knew the leaders of the Ayoreo community. I worked with him for the six years that the film process lasted. He worked as an intercultural advisor and all decisions were made under his supervision. We also worked with Tagüide Picanerái, a young leader of the Community who advised us especially in the script stage.

Deforestation is a theme of your film. In Europe there is a strong debate about deforestation in different parts of the world. Do you think that more effective measures should be taken at a global level to stop this trend?

PE:Yes, of course! The damage that the planet is suffering because of this is enormous and it seems that nobody is aware of it. It is really serious what is happening, but it would seem that no one is taking the scale of the damage into account. Maybe by the time we want to realise this it will be too late...The time is now!

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