Based on the powerful words of shaman and Yanomami leader Davi Kopenawa, the documentary portrays the indigenous community of Watoriki as it engages in a vital funeral rite known as a reahu —a collective effort to hold up the sky. The film stands as a trenchant shamanic critique of illegal gold mining, the deadly mix of epidemics brought by outsiders the Yanomami call “xawara”, and those Davi calls the “merchandise people”. Showcasing the beauty of Yanomami cosmology and its xapiri spirits while also highlighting this people’s geopolitical importance, “The Falling Sky” invites us to dream far.

Presented in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.