The Dead and the Others

There are no spirits or snakes tonight and the forest around the village is quiet. Fifteen year old Ihjac has nightmares since he has lost his father. He is an indigenous Kraho from the north of Brazil. Ihjac walks into darkness, his sweaty body moves with fright. A distant chant comes through the palm trees. His father's voice calls him to the waterfall: it's time to organize the funerary feast so the spirit can depart to the dead's village. The mourning must cease. Denying his duty and in order to escape a crucial process of becoming a shaman, Ihjac runs away to the city. Far from his people and culture, he faces the reality of being an indigenous in contemporary Brazil.