O Avesso do Céu

The film tells an essay-like story of neo-colonial exploitation deep inside the Amazon region at the border triangle of Peru, Colombia and Brazil. It artfully interweaves three spheres into a dense visual and acoustic composition: the vibrant, nature-loving and acutely endangered indigenous community and culture, rhythmically underpinned by wood knocking and drum sounds; the illegal timber industry on rivers, audible through the shrill sounds of saw blade grinding machines; and the obtrusive proselytizing by evangelical churches with masses, litany-like sermons and church hymns promising paradise and culminating in an animal sacrifice ritual – symbolic of the importance of religion in the centuries-long colonization process.