EAMI

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 heartrending 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. She is the bird-god – she explains in the poetic voice-over, in her own language – looking for whomever may be left. Every now and then, Encina plays snippets of interviews, whilst studying Eami’s immobile face.

Eami will have to live outside the rainforest, just like the coñone (literally: ‘the insensitive’). Encina turns her final wander into an experience for all the senses, with enchanting images and a powerful sound mix. A bird screams. The wind rustles the leaves. Something growls in the distance. Then: machines. Panic. EAMI is an indictment; yet, perhaps even more so, an attempt to record something that will be lost. ‘Remember everything,’ says the lizard/old man who accompanies Eami on her journey. ’Once we leave, we can never come back.’