Momentarily, it feels as if the Guarani could win this fight and maybe give it to globalization on the shins.
BirdWatchers (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:16
Fresh:15
Rotten:1
Average Rating:7/10
Synopsis:
In Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, the farmers lead a wealthy and leisurely
existence. They own huge fields with transgenic plantations and they spend
their nights with tourists who come bird...
In Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, the farmers lead a wealthy and leisurely
existence. They own huge fields with transgenic plantations and they spend
their nights with tourists who come bird watching.
Meanwhile, at the borders of their lands, the uneasiness of the natives, who
were the legitimate inhabitants of those lands, is rapidly growing.
Enclosed in reserves, with no other perspective except that of working as
semi-slaves in sugar beet plantations, many young people commit suicide.
It is such a suicide that stirs up a rebellion. Led by Nadio, and by a shaman, a
group of native Guarani-Kaiowà starts camping outside one of the properties
to claim their land back.
The two opposing worlds face each other, engaging in a metaphorical as
well as a real war. But as well as anger, both sides are also fascinated and
curious about “the other”. A curiosity that will create a deep bond between
the young shaman apprentice Osvaldo, and a farmer’s daughter...
--© IFC Films
Starring: Claudio Santamaria, Chiara Caselli, Matheus Nachtergaele
Starring: Claudio Santamaria, Chiara Caselli, Matheus Nachtergaele
Director: Marco Bechis
Director: Marco Bechis
Screenwriter: Marco Bechis, Luiz Bolognesi
Reviews for BirdWatchers
Birdwatchers is an unusual and sympathetic exploration of a diminishing society driven to near extinction by capitalism and colonialism. And if it provokes action, then it’s a job well done.
Writer-director-producer Marco Bechis’s absorbing story of struggle and survival carries its committed ethnographic and political passions lightly.
Makes its point very effectively in the first 10 minutes and has subsequent difficulties convincing as a full-length narrative feature; a documentary treatment could have been more illuminating.
BirdWatchers just about manages to hold your interest, but it can’t seem to decide whether it’s a contemporary western or a retelling of Romeo and Juliet.
Bechis may not be the greatest cinematic stylist around, but his heartfelt purpose is there for all to see.
Marco Bechis’ crusading film sets up some fairly predictable clashes. But it’s redeemed by the casting of actual Guarani tribespeople in the lead roles – and as actors, the Guarani prove themselves superb naturals.
Bechis bequeaths us a landscape scattered with enigmas, jigsaw pieces for us to complete our own picture.
The devastating effects of European colonialism are confronted head on in this thoughtful, crusading film.
Birdwatchers is dark, but it’s important, too, and both artistically and politically compelling.
By the end, it is leaning towards melodramatic simplification; but its broad sympathies, startling landscapes and non-professional cast make up for that.
The script resonates with strong themes that address social and ecological issues regarding the environment versus the pressures of a global economy.
Beautifully shot and performed with the authenticity of a documentary, this involving drama has a lot to say about human progress in rural Brazil, although its off-handed story and slow pace might alienate some audiences.
Having captured an authentic and compelling tone, the cliched story twists lets the film's down occasionally.
Convincingly portrays the plight of the Guarani Indians of Brazil as they struggle to survive in the midst of poverty, displacement from their forest home, and their young people's lack of interest in tribal tradition and religion.
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