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The Falling Sky

Play trailer The Falling Sky 2024 1h 50m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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Based on the powerful words of shaman and Yanomami leader Davi Kopenawa, 'The Falling Sky' portrays the Indigenous community of Watorikɨ 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.

Critics Reviews

View All (7) Critics Reviews
Sheri Linden The Hollywood Reporter The Falling Sky presents something more immediate than an argument... And, perhaps most wrenchingly, it offers the memories of an elderly Yanomami man whose life was upended by the belligerent missionaries who ravaged his community and put him to work. May 24, 2024 Full Review Carlos Aguilar Variety One of the most necessary and scorching pieces of nonfiction storytelling in recent memory. May 20, 2024 Full Review Guilherme Jacobs indieWire Rocha and Carneiro might not equal their subjects when it comes to image-making, but their movie does provide a way for these fantasies to, hopefully, outlive those who seek to wipe them out. Rated: B- May 20, 2024 Full Review Ankit Jhunjhunwala The Playlist “The Falling Sky” bucks the charge that it might easily have been a Doc Short through its enveloping, lustrous cinematography. Rated: B- Sep 21, 2024 Full Review Olivia Popp Cineuropa It thus becomes a double-edged sword: an admirable impulse to champion indigenous voices while being anti-Eurocentric, challenged by the struggle to be heard at all. May 25, 2024 Full Review Jason Gorber POV Magazine Told with the quiet and deliberate pace of its subject and narrator, The Falling Sky does justice to Kopenawa’s ideas at the forefront, with the feast of stunning visuals buttressing these comments and considerations as part of a whole. May 19, 2024 Full Review Read all reviews

Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Based on the powerful words of shaman and Yanomami leader Davi Kopenawa, 'The Falling Sky' portrays the Indigenous community of Watorikɨ 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.
Director
Eryk Rocha, Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha
Producer
Donatella Palermo, Eryk Rocha, Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha
Screenwriter
Eryk Rocha, Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha, Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, Bruce Albert
Production Co
Aruac Filmes, Hutukara Associação Yanomami, Stemal Entertainment, Rai Cinema, Les Films d'Ici
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
Brazilian Portuguese
Runtime
1h 50m