Yarokamena
In an unknown place, futuristic ruins overlap with the story of an indigenous saga. In 20th-century Colombia, resistance fighter Yarokamena, a member of the indigenous Uitoto tribe, called for rebellion against violent exploitation of the rubber mining industry in the Amazone and invoked the spiritual powers of war.
A mythical figure is summoned to the screen in blood-coloured light. Yarokamena, a hero of the indigenous resistance at the beginning of 20th century Colombia, pushes this disquieting tale that weaves past, present and future and reminds us of the violent legacy of extractivism and colonialism whose brutal echoes cannot be silenced to this day. In the words of the film, “The jungle shudders, the trees are the ones who know what happened, but since they’re not humans, they don’t speak, so all the memories are collected there.”
As stated by Gerardo Sueche, councilor of the Uitoto people, the film remarkably attempts to return the voice to the people who were wronged generation upon generation—softly at first, resorting to fragments of oral history that were long silenced by authority figures, until it finally becomes deafening, a sheer destructive force that resonates loudly in the form of a raging black metal sound.
A portal has been opened, and the ghosts of the past are now floating above a graveyard of dysfunctional antennas that punctuate the landscape of the Amazon shown in the first part of the film; technological ruins of the future that serve as a reminder that the cycle of exploitation has yet to be broken.
Yarokamena is a timely piece, a strong manifesto that shines a light on a dark history to prove once more that environmental justice is and should be an anti-colonial struggle.
Yarokamena was picked by Romanian film curator Oana Ghera. She has been the Artistic Director of the Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival (BIEFF) since 2020 and is currently also the Industry Coordinator for European Short Pitch and part of the pre-selection committees of Go Short (Nijmegen) and Vienna Shorts.
Eight thousand five hundred kilometres lie between the Amazon and the Ardennes. In his home country of Brazil, filmmaker Diego looks at the inaccessible forest from the outside. Its Belgian counterpiece, however, is easier to explore.