Final Rating: 3/5
João Moreira Salles is one of the most relevant Brazilian documentary filmmakers. He is the director of films such as Santiago, Notícias de Uma Guerra Particular, Nelson Freire, and Entreatos, and he is well-known for his privileged access to important figures in the country. One of the reasons is his wealthy background.
Salles comes from a family of bankers and a mining company. Still, he and his brother, Walter, leaned into artistry, becoming film directors and founders of the Institute Moreira Salles (IMS), a vital institution for the arts in the country. After eight years, the director is back with his new non-fiction work, Minha Terra Estrangeira (My Foreign Land), for which he shares the credits with Coletivo Lakapoy, Louise Botkay, Ubiratan Gamalodtaba Suruí, Xener Paiter Suruí, Christyann Ritse, and Gisabel Borba Leite.
In 2004, Salles released Entreatos, an intimate look at the last moments of the campaign of Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, who won the presidential election for the first time in 2002. My Foreign Land is a testament of the director to do the same, but he flips the subject. Rather than filming the most prominent individual in the country, he follows Almir and Txaí Suruí, indigenous activists, who advocate for the Amazon forest. In this sense, Almir, who is the tribe leader, runs for congress in his state, Rondonia.
However, the Northern state is the second most supportive of Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right president at that time. There is a barrier for locals in voting for an indigenous candidate, instead, most of the population votes for the representatives of the fascist leader. In this sense, the directors divide the film into two. The first, focused on Almir’s campaign, and the second, following Txaí in her travels around the world.
Almost crafted like two different films, especially with credits dividing them in half with different directors named. The first one by Coletivo Lakapoy, Louise Botkay, Ubiratan Gamalodtaba Suruí, Xener Paiter Suruí, Christyann Ritse, and Gisabel Borba Leite. It is an approximate view of the campaign. They show Almir and his speeches to different tribes, conversing with farmers and mining owners who are not keen to vote for him.
His discourse is for the modernization of the indigenous communities; he argues that they are not ancient or old-fashioned, and they can use the benefits of tech to fight against farmers who want to harvest in the woods. This half is raw, an unpolished view of the leader and provides no room for more complex discussion.
However, Txaí’s half, helmed by João Moreira Salles, is the majority of the film. Following the young activist in her discourse at the Climate Change Conference in Glasgow or in protests in New York, the camera talks directly to a leader who benefits from her exposure on social media. Her part of the film has more substance to provide, leading to the marvelous documentation of her speech in an event for Lula’s campaign, where she states that living forests result in dead fascism.
Ethically, the portrayal seems like Salles’ fascination with expanding the indigenous voice, even if it means diminishing the documentation of indigenous filmmakers in the same film. The second half is way more prominent than the first, mostly because it is the one by the white rich man. Even if ethically complex, his experience leads to a more creative space, deepening the issues of the tribe during Bolsonaro’s term.
In a sense, My Foreign Land seems like a spiritual successor to Alex Pritz’s The Territory, which focuses on Neidinha, Txaí’s mother. Similarly, both films are by white directors, but Pritz thrives more in the incorporation of indigenous voices. The film’s title, which refers to the portion by Walter Salles, Foreign Land, is an affirmation of the director’s ignorance of that unseen culture. There is an unevenness in the both halves that benefits the white man’s perspective, diminishing the ideas that the film itself raises as its concern.
My Foreign Land was seen during the 2026 Hot Docs film festival. Thank you to the festival for the screener.
