IFFR
Paraguayan Tiger Award winner EAMI is a sensorial tribute to the Ayoreo life.
Directed by: Paz Encina
Year: 2022
Country: Paraguay, Germany, Argentina, Netherlands, France, United States, Mexico
Length: 83 minutes
The first shot of Paraguayan director Paz Encina’s EAMI introduces us to the world of the Ayoreo Totobiegosode people through a motionless, unbroken 7-minute shot of an egg laying in the sand. What at first might seem like a relatively ’empty’ composition, is transformed by all sorts of natural elements entering the frame: insects, wind, leaves, smoke, various shades of sunlight and shadows change one’s look at the initial composition, in an ethereal sequence on life. The sound design here is simply mesmerizing During this sequence we hear the voice of a woman describing how life was created. A breath into a wind, into a song, into the inhabitants of nature. The voice describes how she was a bird. Her name is Asojá, the bird-god-woman. Asojá poetically tells the story of how her world changed when it was invaded and taken over. Throughout the film, she guides the audience and protagonist EAMI through a world that once was. This first sequence is not only representative for the rest of the film, but also the history of the Totobiegosode community.
Eami, named after the forest and the world, is a 5-year-old Indigenous girl from the Paraguyan Chaco Forest, the home of the Ayoreo Totobiegosode people. When forced to leave the forest, Eami wanders through a spiritual landscape where she reflects on life, death and loss. Asojá grants her vivid memories of her people, which she keeps close to her as she walks through her home one last time.
The script of EAMI is filled with pure poetry. This feels in harmony with the organic, spiritual culture that’s presented in the film, especially since words are the way people from the Totobiegosode community express their love, rather than through physical touch. The poetic monologues in the film are beautifully complemented by the strong visual language Encina inserts into the narrative. It’s one shot, near the beginning of the film, of boot footsteps in mud in the land of the Ayoereo people, that can already make a huge impact. The contrast between the past and present is highlighted, with damage having been done to what used to be so organic and pure. Lengthy closeups of people’s faces create a window to their thoughts, and emotions and souls. When not speaking to the camera in words, their facial expressions speak just as loud.
The Paraguayan Chaco, the home of the Totobiegosode people, is the territory with the highest deforestation rate in the world. Over 25,000 hectares of forest are cut down per month, which causes the health of the forest to rapidly deteriorate. The forest, and thus also its inhabitants and their culture, is in danger of becoming extinct.
Paz Encani had been wanting to make a love story. When her friend, a translator, of the native communities of the Paraguayan Chaco took her to meet the Totobiegosode people, she found that a lot of people there had lost their love and lived in pain. Spending two years listening to the people’s stories, spending time with them, she collected many memories. EAMI is a testament to those memories, the ones that have been lost and a culture that shouldn’t be erased.
EAMI premiered at the 2022 International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it won the grand prize, the Tiger Award.
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