Brazilian film about indigenous resistance awarded at Cannes

The Brazilian feature film A Flor do Buriti (Buriti flower), produced by Brazilian Renée Nader Messora and Portuguese João Salaviza, was awarded at Cannes 2023 Festival, in France. It won the Prix D’ensemble (Best Team Award) in the “Un Certain Regard” section.

The film, a production of Entre Filmes, premiered on May 23, delves into the last 80 years of the history of the Krahô, an indigenous people who live in the north of the state of Tocantins, on the border with the states of Maranhão and Piauí. Different forms of resistance are portrayed, such as the struggle for land, greater freedom, the preservation of ancestral rites, and the nature of the communities where they live. An event highlighted in the feature film is the massacre that took place in 1940. It is estimated that farmers from the region killed at least 26 people from the Krahô people.