Narrated by the indigenous people themselves, the film shows the impacts of monoculture in the Wawi territory, of the Kisêdjê people, in the state of Mato Grosso.
The film Sukande Kasáká | Sick Earth, won the award for Best Documentary in the Brazilian Short Film Competition and also the Mistika Award for Best Documentary in the Brazilian Short Film Competition during the It's All True Festival, which took place from April 3 to 13 in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
As a next step, it will be included in the list of works that will be evaluated for Oscar nomination, a traditional award that recently recognized the feature film. I'm still here as Best International Film, and it is expected that it will have space for screening during COP30, in Belém.
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The narrative follows Kamikia and Lewayki Khisêtjê, the former also the film's director, as they witness the degradation of their ancestral land and the silent consequences of poison spraying affecting the forest and rivers that provide their people with a livelihood. As signs of contamination become increasingly evident—from changes in the ecosystem to mysterious illnesses affecting children and the elderly—the community is forced to make the decision to abandon their largest village, Ngojhwere, and seek a new place where they can live safely.
The poison of pesticides dissolves boundaries between farms and Indigenous Territory, exposing a brutal interconnection between the Kisêdjê and a production model that advances without looking back, slowly making the land uninhabitable without the need for weapons or fences—only by the progressive poisoning of all that gives life. The scientific research requested by the Khisêtjê themselves confirms what they already felt in their bodies: 28 types of pesticides were detected in their water, hunting, fishing, and even in the rain—elements essential to their subsistence.
Throughout the narrative, the voices of the elders blend with the concerns of the young, who question the future of water, food, and animals. Kamikia Khisêtjê, an Indigenous filmmaker and documentarian, uses images to record the surrounding destruction and the struggle of his people, exposing the advance of soybean plantations into the forest and the constant arrival of crop-dusting drones that pour poison on the forest edges. The camera also becomes a tool of resistance.
Composed of images captured over 12 years, the film constructs an intimate portrait of the Khisêtjê struggle, revealing the transformations of the territory and the accumulated impacts of contamination over time. Sukande Kasáká | Sick Earth It is not just a story about environmental contamination, but about the attempt to erase a culture and the resilience of a people who, despite everything, reorganize and resist.
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