Iwianch, el Diablo Venado (Iwianch, the Devil Deer)

synopsis

An enigmatic presence haunts the depths of the Amazon rainforest, where an indigenous Achuar teenager has disappeared. During the search for the young man, his family decides to consult with a Shaman, who, immersed in trance, reveals that the young man was taken by the devil, but that he has intervened by showing him the way back to his home. While waiting for his return, secrets of the rainforest and Amazonian visions of life after death are touched, vanishing the documentary filmmaker’s concepts of reality.

about the director

José Cardoso, Seydú’s father, filmmaker, illustrator and graphic designer; he has developed fiction, animation and documentary films, on themes revolving around surrealism, consciousness and anti-colonialism. His short documentary What the Soil Remembers won the IFFR Ammodo Tiger Short Film Award at IFFR Rotterdam 2023 and Best Doc-Short Form at the Regina International Film Festival in Canada. After being selected for his first feature film Iwianch, The Devil Deer at the 59th Ann Arbor Film Festival, he won the Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker. He worked for BBC, 100 Women as film director of the chapter in Ecuador of the series: The Femicide Detectives.