BIRDWATCHERS (Brazil 2008) ***

Directed by Marco Bechis

BIRDWATCHERS is a realistic drama on Indian rights in Brazil.  It is also the age old story of conflict between natives and the landowners.

But do not expect any elaborate over-wrought drama like Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900 (Nouvecento) with overacting by stars like Burt Lancaster and Robert De Niro.  The actors in the case of BIRDWATCHERS are real Guarani Indians, and though all the actors are non-professional director Bechis did train them in the acting profession prior to filming.

The story is simple and the film’s aim is clear.  The film begins with tourists boating down a river running though one of Brazil’s famous rainforests.  They see Guarani natives on shore – in paint and the women topless, holding weapons like ancient arrows.  The camera moves back later to reveal the natives receiving wages (though they complain is not what they had promised) to act out their roles.  Both funny and sad at the same time, this is the dilemma of the Guarani.  They have lost their land and thus their ability to hunt for food.  They have to work for outsiders for insufficient funds.  Sadder still are two suicides revealed early in the film.

The result is the leader Nadio (Ambrosio Vilhava) to protest by taking his tribe to squat on its ancestral land, now owned by a wealthy farmer.  This causes problems and director Bechis brings his film to a disturbing climax.  Instructions of how the audience can donate to help the Guarani are flashed on the screen.  Though important, the tactic sort of reduces the impact of the film.

Bechis’ film feels like a documentary as his film charts the daily routines and troubles f the Guarani though the players are actors.  The authenticity is aided by the haunting music composed by Domenico Zipoli, an Italian Jesuit who worked with the Guarani in the early 1700s.