Death of a Shaman

As Ecuador erupts in protest, the custodian of a threatened way of life contemplates the future of his family line and his people.

In a village deep in the Amazon jungle, Indigenous shaman Rafael Santi practises the sacred customs of his ancestors. As this community elder approaches the end of his life, he hopes to pass his mantle on to his teenage grandson, a devoted student who is nonetheless torn between this heavy responsibility and the opportunities offered by Western education. What’s at stake here is more than just one community’s future, however: this crisis of succession occurs against the backdrop of rising economic pressures and a steady incursion of mining and oil corporations into the Amazon, granted a green light by Ecuador’s pro-market government. As the nation’s Indigenous peoples launch a countrywide protest that takes them to the streets of Quito and into violent conflict with armed forces, Santi uses the traditional medicine of ayahuasca to seek answers from the spirit world.

Australian filmmaker Dan Jackson spent over a decade developing connections with the Indigenous communities of Amazanga to tell this intimate story of one man, his family and an age-old struggle – one that echoes around the world, including here in Australia – between postcolonial states and the peoples they displaced but haven’t defeated. Presenting raw recordings of protest alongside stunning photography of the jungle landscape, archival footage of generations past and vivid depictions of hallucinogenic experience, this MIFF Premiere Fund–supported documentary takes us on a journey deep into the fault lines of our modern world and out into the realm beyond.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival