My first task was to meet this remote jungle tribe, spend time with them to observe and soak in their culture. In my research I studied their gestures and the rhythm of their speech. Understanding this became paramount. The majority of how we communicate is non-verbal, but we take many of our western cultural gestures for granted.

 

I took time to review anthropology students’ studies of the Yanomamö. I read books and watched documentaries, but in every instance there seemed to be a wall separating me from the tribe. It was not until I began conversations and interviews, slept and ate with them, and became friends with a few, that I could see beyond the imaginary mask that separated us. On my journey I encountered tribes deep in the jungle that had not interacted with outsiders. Things that I would not have imagined became part of the screenplay. When we walked into one village we were warmly greeted but curiosity got the better of the men and children. They lifted our shirts. In amazement, they stroked the hair on our chest and arms. This ended up in the scene where the missionaries first moved into the region.

 

As writers we are like conductors of a human symphony, suggesting movement, words and gestures. Some of the responses come from experience and others from instinct. In another scene, an adversarial tribe visits the newly arrived missionaries. Once the friendly tribe arrives home from their jungle foraging, a violent battle breaks out. From the historical event, I knew the basic structure of what took place but not some of the human responses that triggered the events. In the scene: a missionary woman places her children in a safe room as the injured are brought in their hut. I wrote that a little boy peeks through the slats of the room as his mother attends to the wounded tribe. On set, the film advisors consisted of Yanomamö tribesmen we brought up from the jungle and the son of the missionaries in that event. When I was shooting the scene, the son said, “That’s me … I peeked through the slats.” I had no idea that he had done that but based on instinct and knowledge that we are a curious species, I was right. I just smiled.

            

Yai Wanonabälewä: The Enemy God is not a common Yanomamö story. It is the story of one man, his tribe, and their struggle to survive. It is about the shifting of a people, the shifting of a culture and in that, maybe it is a challenge for the audience to look at things a little differently than they had before.

 

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Christopher Bessette is a multi-award winning writer-director, member of the Director’s Guild of Canada and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Yai Wanonabälewä: The Enemy God is his first feature film and has received numerous awards at various festivals worldwide, including “Best Director” for Bessette at the 2008 Arpa International Film Festival in Hollywood. The film is represented by Entertainment 7 in Los Angeles and Produced by Tom Khazoyan and Matt Castagna of 10x Productions in Denver Colorado. For more info on the movie visit www.theenemygod.com. For more info on Bessette visit www.dgc.ca/directors/cbessette or www.terrapin-point.com.

 

Photo: Karol Smith, K'ekchi' linguist supervisor, writer-director Christopher Bessette, and actor Richard Tiul  

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