Cao Hamburger’s follow up to his acclaimed 2007 film The Year My Parents Went on Vacation is based on the true story of the Vilas-Bôas brothers’ journey through Xingu and their time among the indigenous people. During their exploration of central Brazil in 1943, Orlando, Claudio and Leonardo Villas-Bôas encounter the Xingu indigenous people. Passionately interested by what they discover about the customs and social systems of the cultures they discover, the brothers make a home among them. When half of a village dies of an influenza epidemic, the brothers devote their lives to protecting the Xingu peoples, preserving Xingu culture and to the creation of a Xingu National Park. By retelling the brothers’ saga, Xingu reveals the struggle to create the Indian park and consequent preservation of an array of different Indian tribes, transforming the Villas-Boas into Brazilian heroes and giving rise to dialogues revolving around chronic problems in Brazil’s history.
XINGU
A film by Cao Hamburger
(Brazil, 2012, 116 min. In Portuguese and Tupi with English subtitles)
Now streaming on Amazon Prime
Watch the trailer:
