Director’s Note

The war against Paraguay (1864–1870) was the greatest tragedy on the continent. A total war, in which the armies of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay exterminated more than half of Paraguay’s population, including children who, with soot-painted beards, could barely hold the weight of their weapons. For Paraguay, this war meant the destruction of its nascent national industry, its virtuous public education system, and the equitable distribution of land. As Argentine President Mitre stated at the time: “In the Paraguayan War, not only did the Triple Alliance triumph, but so did the principles of free trade.”

The first image that came to mind for this film was the spectral presence of the exterminated people wandering through the jungle. I believe in ghosts, and I think that beyond the grave, these souls walk across the Paraguayan hills, seeking either eternal peace or eternal unrest. Their salvation does not depend on God, but on the possibility of a secret encounter between past generations and our own.

Every time I visit the Primeiro de Março Community—a symbol of peasant resistance and the setting of our film—I feel the power of that encounter. The impulse of a historical tradition that was attempted to be erased along with its people, yet resurfaces invincible in every man and woman willing to fight for their land. For that land, taken from the people after the enemy’s victory in the war. There, the mythical past and the possibility of a different future meet. In a time of so much darkness, we want to record, through cinema, this ray of light that, crossing through time, allows us to dream of a better future.