The academy
and the entertainment industry have been criticizing the "politically
incorrect" image of a pacific conquest of the American continent
for quite a while. The five hundred years of "discovery" - a word
also questionable since it presupposes the non-existence of any
other civilization in the new world - have been celebrated with
numerous productions which showed other points of view than that
of the colonizer.
Despite the polarization that has taken place - only this time opposing
the good savage to the bad colonizer - a lot of things have been
made in different countries, but not in Brazil, where we should
draw particular attention to the conquest of the west and the definition
of the frontiers that have given this one country continental proportions.
 
This film
works on a fact occurred in Mato Grosso (the most western state
of Brazil), in the Pantanal region, in 1778. A few years earlier
- in 1775 - the Fort Coimbra was built on the margin of the Paraguay
river for the Portuguese crown to defend this territory, constantly
invaded by Spanish troops. The region was inhabited by the Guaicuru
knight Indians, who have had amicable relations with the Spanish
missionaries.
In 1778, a group of Guaicuru Indians arrived at the fort and asked
to negotiate with the soldiers. The Indians offered them their
women. They not only accepted as also agreed to their demand.
Alleging that the women were afraid of their firearms, they asked
the soldiers to lay down their guns. As this was done, Indians
invaded the fort and executed a massacre: 54 soldiers died. Only
a few soldiers were able to escape alive.
  
The proposal is not to create an epic, but to confront two logics,
the indigenous one and the Portuguese one, both blending amidst
the cultural shock. This can be shown throughout the development
of the main characters. On one side, the "savage", seen by the
Portuguese as incapable of articulating a train of thought, is
able to elaborate a military strategy (well known in western history
- the Troya's horse). On the other side, the Portuguese rapist,
at the end of his life, asks the Crown for protection for his
indigenous family. If there is no sin below the equator, there
is no return as well.
The story will be told from the point of view of the survivors
of the Guaicuru tribe. The idea is that the less favored historically
recall the heroism of the tribe, paying homage to the indigenous
oral tradition.
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