Dreams Travel With the Wind evaluate – communing with the spirits to protect Indigenous tradition in Colombia | Movie

Spirituality and historical past collide in Inti Jacanamijoy’s debut documentary, shot among the many rugged, enigmatic terrain of La Guajira, Colombia, the birthplace of his grandfather, José Agustín. Now in his 90s, the older man muses on the inevitability of dying, all whereas trying again on his painful upbringing as a Wayuu Indigenous person. His voiceover, laid over the sight of lush forest and babbling brooks, remembers a merciless separation from his mom and his ancestral land, pressured by Catholic invaders. This sense of fracture resonates all through the household lineage. Jacanamijoy too speaks of his emotions of loss brought on by generational trauma.

Against such emotional and geographical disconnects, the movie seems to desires – and even the afterlife – as a doable house for reconciliation and therapeutic. José Agustín’s mom has lengthy handed, but he usually sees her in his nocturnal reveries, full of all-consuming longing. The movie’s sensorial soundscape, which builds a symphony out of pure sounds, additional enhancing this metaphysical ambiance. It is as if the presence of José Agustín’s mom, together with the souls of different Indigenous individuals, are embedded on the land itself, regardless of the efforts of colonial occupiers to erase their tradition. In a beguiling second, because the previous man envisions his personal burial, the movie conjures the imagined voice of his deceased mom, welcoming him into one other realm of existence.

Mesmerising as it’s, Jacanamijoy’s movie shouldn’t be merely concerning the summary. The documentary additionally accentuates acts of care because the Wayuu neighborhood rallies round José Agustín as he approaches previous age. There are closeups of fingers: bathing, lighting ceremonial candles, and even making ready a tomb for his resting place. In a strong message of resistance, Jacanamijoy captures how Indigenous tradition survives towards all odds, each on this Earth, and within the afterlife.