Birdwatchers DVD

Italian-Brazilian film ‘Birdwatchers’, selected as one of the films in competition for the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, highlights the plight of the Guarani-Kaiowá Indians in Brazil, whose lands are being destroyed to produce biofuels for cars and other vehicles.

Birdwatchers is a love story set in rural Brazil between the daughter of a wealthy land owner and a young Guarani shaman apprentice, as their two worlds collide against the backdrop of land invasion, suicides, and rebellion.

230 Guarani Indians, who had never acted before were involved in the making of the film. Eliane Juca da Silva, one of the Guarani actors, said at the film’s launch in Venice, ‘It makes me weep to know that so many of our children are dying… We just want the chance to continue living… All we want is some land to plant and to hunt.’

Survival International has opened a fund, in association with the film, to help the Guarani defend their rights, lands and futures.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said, ‘I hope this film will bring attention to the shocking plight of the Guarani, their acute land shortages, and the biofuels industry which threatens to make their problems even worse.’

Format: PAL
Region: Region 2 – this DVD may not be viewable outside Europe.
Number of Discs: 1
Classification: 15
Company: Artificial Eye
Director: Marco Bechis
Actors: Claudio Santamaria, Matheus Nachtergaele
Run time: 108 minutes

Price £15.99