“We are Nature defending itself”
Watchers of a world once thought eternal, sentinels and guardians of the natural sanctuaries of the living world, Indigenous Peoples raise their bodies and souls between humanity and the abyss that threatens it.
Through them, the forests still breathe, the rivers still irrigate the veins of the Earth, and the spirits continue to animate every form of life.
Amazonia, the Heart of Mother Earth takes us alongside seven guardians of life, of wisdom, and of resistance, bearers of four generations of the same flame:
·Raoni, the oak with deep roots;
·Davi, the shaman with words of stars;
·Alessandra, the voice that cuts through dams;
·Ninawa, the vigilant jaguar of sacred territories;
·Kretã, the shield of the southern forests;
·Valdelice, the raised fist of the Guarani-Kaiowá people;
·Val, the lotus flower already standing in the wind.
Their intertwined destinies form a blazing fresco of humanity, begun more than seventy years ago. A fresco of struggle and of light, where each victory is a glowing ember in the night.
These Guardians do not protect Nature: they are Nature defending itself. Their songs are those of trees teeming with life, their tears those of springs that refuse to dry up. Their bodies are territories of resistance, their scars painted with genipapo and urucum glowing with a thousand fires under the sun. Their voices, a murmur that at every warning from Mother Earth turns into thunder to remind us of what we have forgotten.
Without respect for the forest, there will be no morning.
Without justice for those who defend it, there will be no world.
For them, the Amazon is not a backdrop, nor a resource: it is a vital organ of the body-world. It beats beneath their skin, pulses in their dreams. It is their home, their temple, their memory, and their future. A place inhabited by spirits, where every creature, every stone, every breath belongs to one vast family.
They advance with the will to act and to persuade, so that the laws of men, whoever they may be, may once again embrace those of Mother Earth. So that, on the horizon of chaos, paths of hope may arise.
Through the intimate accounts of seven emblematic Indigenous leaders, Amazonia, the Heart of Mother Earth retraces seventy years of struggles and alliances that have shaped a new paradigm of protecting the forest and the living world.
The film reveals how, against the current of History, Indigenous and non-Indigenous men forged extraordinary friendships — where everything seemed to oppose them — and allied for the first time to build, together, new paths of preservation and justice: durable alliances capable of withstanding the ravages of time.
From the Xingu Park, envisioned by Chief Raoni and his people with the Villas-Bôas brothers in the 1950s, to the creation of the first Ministry of Indigenous Peoples in 2022, through the intertwined struggles of Davi Yanomami, Ninawa Huni Kui, Sting, Sydney Possuelo, and President Lula, the film shows that, despite the destructive forces at work, pioneering alliances and acts of courage can bring about unexpected victories that generate change.
Amazonia, the Heart of Mother Earth demonstrates it: a pact of brotherhood can push back bulldozers, create protected areas as large as a country, and enshrine the rights of Indigenous Peoples in a constitution.
But today, these achievements are threatened by a global extractivist and productivist system, inherited from colonization, that leads to mass ecocide. Far from being a simple observation, Amazonia, the Heart of Mother Earth is a manifesto in images: it proves that new forms of cooperation are possible — necessary — and that they must be invented now, on a larger scale. It is not a memorial, but a drumroll calling for the formation of the next wave of allies. A model of hope already exists: local, horizontal cooperations that respect life.
The film invites everyone — citizen, business, policymaker, teacher — to join the unbroken chain of “guardians”, to reinvent the economy, education, and diplomacy in light of Indigenous knowledge.
For protecting the Amazon means protecting the heart that beats for us all. The challenge is not only to save a forest and millennia-old cultures, but also to co-create a new world where every viewer, in turn, becomes an actor and partner of the living world.
In May 2022, Gert-Peter Bruch and Esmeralda of Belgium embark on an extraordinary journey into Kayapo territory, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. For Gert-Peter, this trip is a return to his roots: he reunites with his longtime friend, Chief Raoni Metuktire, whom he has supported in his fight for more than 35 years, since the first world tour with Sting.
For Princess Esmeralda, with Gert-Peter as her guide, this is a first immersion of deep symbolic significance: she walks in the footsteps of her father, King Leopold III, who came sixty years earlier to stand with the Indigenous Peoples of the Xingu.
This moment is imbued with exceptional intensity. Chief Raoni, a survivor of a particularly severe case of COVID-19 and still marked by the loss of his wife, returns to the public stage for the first time after a long period of withdrawal. In a sequence that is both intimate and solemn, he puts on his feather headdress, a sign of his return to life, to the fight, and to hope. Shortly afterward, he grants the filmmakers an epic, vibrant interview, marked by humor, emotion, and the power of memory. He retraces the major chapters of his life and his struggle, while also speaking about the present and the future.
This historic resurgence coincides with another resurrection: that of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, then a candidate for the presidency of Brazil. It is in this context that Princess Esmeralda of Belgium and Gert-Peter Bruch meet him to question him and hand him a letter from Chief Raoni, containing three fundamental requests: to relaunch the demarcation of Indigenous lands, to appoint an Indigenous representative to head FUNAI, and to create a Ministry of Indigenous Peoples fully articulated by Indigenous authorities themselves.
This moment, featured in the film, seals the reunion of two historic figures of Brazil. In the wake of this letter, Lula officially invites Chief Raoni to be at his side at his inauguration, on January 1, 2023, on the ramp of the Planalto Palace, at the moment when the presidential sash is bestowed upon him. A powerful image, destined to remain in history.
But Amazonia, the Heart of Mother Earth is far more than a historical testimony: it is an act of remembrance and reconnection, a vibrant tribute to biodiversity and a passionate call to engagement. From the outset, the filmmakers wished to inscribe this lived story in a poetic, educational, and mobilizing work, celebrating not only the splendor of the Amazon but also the richness of interdependent ecosystems too often overlooked: the Atlantic Forest, the Cerrado, the Pantanal, the Caatinga…
Driven by exceptional creative alliances, the film brings together spectacular images, captured by masters of natural-history cinematography: Christian Dimitrius, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Patrick Rouxel, David Huting. These sumptuous scenes are in dialogue with rare visual treasures drawn from the archives of Greenpeace and WWF, as well as with seldom-seen sequences, the fruit of fifteen years of filming and commitment by Planète Amazone and Gert-Peter Bruch. Some archival images are precious and previously unseen: footage of King Leopold III in the Amazon from the Princess’s private collection or from the University of Goiás; unique video archives of Chief Raoni; private photographs from the families of Orlando Villas-Bôas and Sydney Possuelo. A documentary corpus of inestimable historical value.
Adding to this visual poetry is a striking graphic homage through the work of the painter Elen Ture, a self-taught French artist of Anatolian origin and a steadfast ally of Planète Amazone. She created several original drawings for the film, a striking poster, and above all offered a monumental mural: The Alliance. The fruit of nine months of painstaking work, this piece symbolically links Indigenous Peoples around the world to their sacred animals. In the film’s final sequence, a slow pull-back reveals the mural in its entirety, carried by a rare offering, an ethnic piece of music by Paul McCartney.
The music legend wished to support the project by authorizing the use of his track Kreen Akrore, composed in 1970, just after the breakup of the Beatles. Inspired by a BBC documentary devoted to the Peoples of the Xingu, this tribal, powerful, percussive piece accompanies the details of Elen Ture’s mural in a whirling alchemy. This sequence visually sums up the film’s message: our world is a living, interconnected tapestry, whose ancestral guardians still carry its memory and its future.
Every image in the film vibrates with intensity, elevated by the luminous, organic color grading of François Personnier. Thanks to him, the forest, faces, animals, ritual gestures, and village scenes take on an almost sensory dimension. He makes the invisible visible: spirits, the bonds between sky and earth, the hidden presences of the living world. The soundtrack, too, is suffused with a sacred breath. The original compositions of Clément Garcin, Béatrice Little Bear, and Ed Rig resonate with the songs embodying Mother Earth—a sensitive and spiritual voice that guides the viewer throughout the narrative.
Finally, it should be emphasized that this work is the product of an extraordinary surge of solidarity. All the artists, producers, composers, broadcasters, and partners generously offered their rights to make this film possible. The same is true of the many volunteers involved in post-production. Amazonia, the Heart of Mother Earth is a non-profit project, conceived as a lever for awakening and engagement. It addresses young people, educators, activists, dreamers, go-betweens, and also actors in the economic sphere—anyone who wants to build another future. If each contribution to the film is a gesture of tribute and resistance, each viewer is invited to extend this chain of alliances and to become, in turn, a protector of Mother Earth. Amazonia, Heart of Mother Earth is a non-profit project, conceived as a tool for awakening and engagement. It speaks to young people, educators, activists, dreamers, and bridge-builders — as well as to economic actors. To all those who want to build a different future. If every contribution to the film is a gesture of tribute and resistance, each viewer is invited to carry the torch forward and become, in turn, a protector of Mother Earth.
Seven Indigenous leaders weave the framework of the film. By their side, committed allies reinforce their call: a cry of warning, but above all, a song of alliance.
