I don’t understand the movie, let’s talk about my understanding and feelings about some of the elements that appear in it:
El odio a los blancos (Hate Whites)
The hatred of Indians towards whites, in addition to the whites’ occupation of land and a little more resources, it’s even more in the film. It is the conflict of values that is mostly reflected. Indians regard nature as a sacred existence as a mother, and must abide by the laws of the jungle (ley de la selva), such as not eating meat before it rains. At the same time, they also believe that all material things can be shared, everyone has the right to learn knowledge, and they cannot selfishly take things as their own. For example, when the white No. 1 compass was stolen, the locals refused to admit it at first, but later wanted to exchange it with something, but later refused to give it to him. Because they confirm the direction by recognizing the starry sky, and when they come into contact with the compass, they are also curious about new things. This is another system apart from natural phenomena. The White One was originally unwilling to exchange. I understand that his way of understanding the world is based on scientific principles like the compass, but he can't understand the set of observations and feelings of the Indians at all. This was also the first time that he was forced to let go of his way of exploring the world and learn how to survive in the rainforest from scratch. los blancos quieren poseer todos. (White people want to own everything), this is Karamete's view of white people. For two white people, he doesn't understand why each other’s large and small boxes have to be kept by his side until the white person on the 2nd becomes angry. Throw everything away, and the whole journey is a process of conflict, compromise and understanding.
caucho y cauchero (Rubber and rubber plantation owner)
In the film, the three people saw Y-shaped nicks on the trees in the jungle. There is a small bucket under the tree and the white liquid is rubber. The main material is látex (latex), which is mainly used to make rubber and other materials. The Indians were the first to discover and use this white liquid, but from 1879 to 1912, due to the industrial demand for rubber, causing the rubber fever in this area, many whites came to Amazon to enclose land at very low prices. , Or exchange labor with the Indians for basic living materials. People of one group are often reduced to slaves. It is necessary to collect enough caucho every day to avoid being beaten, and to redeem them for 25 consecutive years. To collect more caucho, you need to climb to a higher part of the rubber tree to score (rayar), which is often dangerous. In addition, there are many risks in the process of refining latex.
The companion of White No. 1 used to be a slave in the rubber plantation. It was the white man who helped him redeem his life. When he saw such a rubber plantation again, he was angry and sad. Another Indian with a broken arm that came out saw the rubber being knocked over, and he was also very desperate to ask the other party to kill him. The final noise might be that he threw the river or committed suicide. There are also those orphans in the church, because their parents were slaves in the rubber plantation, or escaped or abandoned, they were gathered together to learn the doctrines of Catholicism. Although they were not physically enslaved, they became spiritual. Transformation can be regarded as the beginning of another catastrophe.
Iglesia y sacerdote italiano (church and Italian priest)
came ashore and saw a group of children. Karamate asked them their names in aboriginal language. The child next to them corrected them in Spanish and said it was not the name. This period is very depressing. At that time, Spain was under Catholic rule. The colonists came to this forest and saw that the locals were unclothed. This was completely unacceptable to the strict religious system in Europe, so they treated the locals as As a diablo (demon). Some priests came to the Amazon with a sacred mission-to indoctrinate the locals, to purify the soul (limpiar su alma), in fact to impose faith (impulsar su religion).
The priest in the film is Capuccino. The white one should be judged from his dark coffee robe. The functions of different priest names seem to be slightly different. For example, there is Francisco. The specific functions and classifications are not clear to me. In the film, the priest flogged the children and the young people who came to the island later flogged themselves because they believed in fragelacion es una forma de pulificacion. (Flogging is a way to purify the soul). It can be seen that colonization of faith is very important. Going deeper, starting from depriving them of their language, name, and all behaviors and habits, implanting "advanced" religious concepts into people's hearts.
The half-
crazy Portuguese in the Mesia-Salvador del mundo (Savior) film, who wears chicken feet as a crown, claims to be the only sacred person in the world. And a group of believers, some of them are orphans left behind in the church, and some of them may also be foreigners. From the beginning of the film, it is said that the rain forest has the magic power to drive people mad, and here is the state of enter locura y creencia (between madness and faith). Long-term lack of communication with the outside world, especially language communication and learning of new things, is in a situation of being abandoned and forgotten. For Karamate's random spells, and the plant leaves that he throws in his hands, they are treated like gods, and there is a loss of identity. I firmly believe that I am the savior, but at the same time I can't do anything. Watching my wife dying of illness and powerless, I can only believe in everything I can believe in the end.
What Karamate throws into the pot should be caapi, which is the kind of plant that vomits after eating. After eating, it should be dizzy, vomiting and hallucinations. The locals think this is a way to communicate with God, because dreams are God’s revelation to themselves and a guide to their own path. The premise is that if you believe it, you will have it, and if you don’t believe it, there will be nothing. This is also what Karamate is giving to the two white men. I have emphasized it repeatedly before taking this medicine.
chullachaqui y Yakruna (?)
The young Karamate first asked him why he wanted to take him away after washing out his own photo on White One, and then realized that the photo was only Chullachaqui. Later, the middle-aged Karamate and the white number two said that they were chullachaqui, un cuerpo vacío, sin alma, sin recuerdo, sin sueño (an empty shell, no soul, no memory and no dreams). The Wiki says this is a dryad, the guardian of the forest. The existence of a person can bring people into the most secret and beautiful places in the forest. What I understand is that a person's body, or image, is a container. In this sense, Karamete seems to have fallen into the philosophical thinking of "who am I" because of the encounter with the white one, constantly searching and questioning the loss of her dream.
As for the Yakruna that I looked for during the two trips, it should be a kind of magical plant that can cure chronic diseases. White No. 1 needs to find it to renew his life. White No. 2 has seen the biographies of his predecessors and admired it. Come. Yakruna is the sacred plant of the tribe where Karamate belongs, and it is also the basis for the existence of the tribe. He originally thought that his tribe no longer existed, and such plants no longer exist, but White One told him that he had seen it before, so the two men embarked on a journey of searching. However, Karamate, who returned to his tribe in full dress, saw that the same tribe regarded Yakruna as a very casual plant for entertaining Peruvians from outside. They had no maintenance and respect for their own ethnic group, and tried to plant Yakruna. universal. In anger, he refused to dedicate the holy artifacts of his ethnic group, and burned them all in a fire, burning down the proudest symbol of his ethnic group, and also severing the white man's hope of healing. At this time, he was no different from the white man. He had a strong possessiveness, and only selfishness and hatred remained. This was also the beginning of his loss of his identity, until he later met the white number two, believing that he would need to tie the bell to untie the bell, and set out on the journey to find Yakruna again.
serpiente y puma (snake and leopard)
Actually, I don't know what the big cats appearing in the middle are called. They have very bright patterns and are called leopards for the time being.
The image of a snake has been there from the beginning, but it is actually the shape of the Amazon River and the entire forest that flows through it. It started with the birth of a baby snake. The snake ate the egg that was about to break its shell, and then expelled a lot of small snakes from a certain genital cavity. This should be a metaphor for the countless branches of the Amazon River. The title is Snake’s Embrace, which is actually exploration in the jungle and intimate contact with the jungle. In the process of contacting Yunlin, Indians and whites showed different values, different views on things, and contrasted, influenced and learned from each other.
At the same time, it also exposed many human weaknesses, such as selfishness and greed. I understand these are the images of leopards. In the process of surviving in the rain forest, in the process of seeking faith, human instincts can make people survive. For example, they can't save the children of the entire monastery, they can only do it before dawn. Run away quickly. For example, they can't save the savior's wife, but they can't tell the truth either. They just pretend to dance a few times before escaping in the chaos.
The rain forest has the magic power to drive people crazy, in fact it has forced out the most primitive human nature. All the fragments of the journey, the transition of time before and after, are the process of boating, which impressed me very much. This is a process of searching, as well as a process of losing. There will be various encounters in the middle, but people are also perfected in constant loss and searching.
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