Cao Hamburger / Brazil / 2012 / 102 min
As Brazilian federal officers release details of a raid on an illegal sawmill, Cao Hamburger’s Xingu returns to a time when the Amazon was still shrouded in mystery. In 1943 Claudio, Orlando and Leonardo Villas Boâs (João Miguel, Felipe Camargo and Caio Blat) join an expedition party heading into uncharted Brazil to befriend the native inhabitants and allow the setting up of Brazilian outposts. After many years in the jungle the brothers’ allegiances change from supporting the growth of Brazilian power to protecting the people whose land they believe they’ve stolen.
There are some achingly picturesque shots of the remote and immeasurable beauty of the Amazon’s Xingu region as the brothers forge their way through, greeted by the simple but alien architecture and customs of the locals. Their humanitarian approach to what is effectively the colonisation of the Amazonian tribes reflecting an altruistic method unusual in stories of nations commandeering land from native peoples. But it’s their struggle against the bureaucracy of the Brazilian political system and the hypocrisy of its leaders that makes this story so universal. The unstoppable progression of national development and big enterprise is of course inevitable but the feisty stance the brothers take against their own people puts the government’s actions into perspective. Hamburger highlights the importance of cultural sensitivity when encroaching into territory of disputed ownership.
Showing as part of the Glasgow Film Festival 2013
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