The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (also known as ‘Berlinale’) is one of the largest publicly attended festivals in the world, held annually since 1951. In 1978, the Berlinale has introduced a new film category called Cinema for People Six and Up, which loosened the age restrictions for access to the festival. This program has since evolved to two separate categories, Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus. In the Generation program, a Portuguese film by Inês T. Alves called ‘Juunt Pastaza Entsari’ (English title: Waters of Pastazais making its world premiere in Berlinale.
‘Juunt Pastaza Entsari’ follows a group of Achuar children living an Amazonian lifestyle, showcasing their independence at a young age in their everyday lives. The children have a deep connection with nature and what surrounds them in the Pastaza River, which borders between Ecuador and Peru. It is a vastly different and unique lifestyle than what many children around the world grow up living, giving a sense of realization of how valuable human physiological needs are and should not be taken for granted. This documentary captures the theory behind Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
The kids are surrounded by nature, and they have the skillset to catch fish, hunt and cook, and find entertainment within nature itself. Keep in mind, these kids are still kids that appear to be around 10 years of age or younger, and they already have the confidence to wield a machete to harvest some food for survival.
Inês was so enamored by how the children were autonomous and resourceful in the ways they live in their life, which is the main reason why she wanted to capture this in film and show their lives to the world. Her style of cinematography immerses the viewers with a front row seat to feel what it is like to hang around these children and appreciate the simple things in nature by the Pastaza River.
Each scene is framed quietly and slowly to allow the viewer to observe the tasks the children are doing and immerse themselves through its visuals. The audience would have to witness the amount of preparation they have to do than to just know that they more than what the synopsis describes.
For example, the synopsis stated that the kids catch fish, hunt and cook. Within the finer details of this scenerio, the kids are also operating a motor boat, preparing liners, and fish hooks. When they hunt the fish, they are also gutting and scaling them, only to see the next scene with a giant pot being warmed up by a “kid-made” firepit. These are high-level survival skills that the kids have, and to many viewers may consider them way ahead of their time of adolescence.
There is very minimal dialogue in this film. It is simply visual poetry of a daily routine, to watch how the kids are taking care of each other as a society. They complement each other by using their skills to work together to bring food, shelter, and entertainment in the amazon. They show a side of fearlessness that most kids in the city would not dare to go out to nature on their own to explore at their age.
While it may seem like the kids are living on their own, there is a brief scene of adults who are also living by the Pastaza River. They are likely the ones who raised these children and taught them independence and the important skills to survive in the amazon. Basically, everything in nature around them is an abundance of opportunity of obtaining the necessities for living. They just to earn it through hard work and labor with no complaints, and working together as a unit. A brief scene of ants on a trail carrying leaves was shown, possibly as a reference to how the insects are working in unison like how the kids are working to take care of each other.
The experience in watching the children’s lives in the Pastaza River is a refreshing take on appreciating nature and the simple joys in life. They all look humble and happy with each other’s company, which is all what anyone wants in life to live in peace and tranquility. ‘Juunt Pastaza Entsari’ captures the essence of that.