A new film delves into the enigmatic legend of a man believed to have transformed into a jaguar during a dark period of military rule. The project, a hybrid of documentary and staged fiction, unfolds in a remote, forested region near the Argentine border.
The filmmaker, returning to his ancestral community, investigates the generations-old story of a figure named Canuto. The narrative weaves together interviews with elders, discussions of local traditions, and the community’s difficult history with a repressive regime. This historical backdrop of forced disappearances and land seizures provides a potent, shadowy context for the central mystery of Canuto’s vanishing.
The film also captures the community’s contemporary struggles, including pointed criticism of a structurally unsound community center, an award-winning design by an outsider that the locals find impractical and plan to dismantle for its wood.
Shot in a meditative, real-time style, the work immerses the viewer in the daily life and landscape of the area. It raises profound questions about belief and truth. The film leaves audiences to ponder whether the jaguar transformation is a literal belief, a powerful metaphor for a tragic political fate, or a collective myth created to process collective trauma. It is a compelling exploration of memory, history, and the stories a community tells itself to survive.
