THE FALLING SKY

“All the shamans will finish by dying out. If none of them survive to hold on to it, the sky will fall.” Yanomami leader Davi Kopenawa’s prophecy gives its name to a visually striking documentary that immerses us in the most significant rite of this Indigenous people of Brazil, inviting us to dream further. Observing the physical and supernatural experience, this film follows in the footsteps of Armenian documentarist Artavazd Pelechian and his visions of the cosmos, while echoing the fateful sounds of neo-colonialist encroachment – illegal logging and mining – which plunges the Yanomami into a severe humanitarian crisis. With his incisive commentary, Kopenawa holds a mirror up to the “commodities people” in the rich countries and their tragedy: although none of this keeps them awake at night, they’re only capable of dreaming about themselves.