‍The Invention of the Other, a 2022 documentary feature film by Bruno Jorge, follows a mission by FUNAI—the state agency which protects and promotes the rights of the Indigenous peoples of Brazil—in their attempt to make first contact with the Korubo, an isolated group living in the Vale do Javari, near the tripoint where the borders of Colombia, Peru and Brazil meet. This part of the rainforest contains the greatest concentration of uncontacted or isolated peoples in the world. The FUNAI expedition team was made up of a group of Indigenous experts, or indigenistas, medical personnel and some members of the Korubo who had split from their community and who had since become accustomed to the world of “pasta, cookies, and beer.” Their separation began with their wanting a machete from a neighbouring group which had already made contact with non-Indigenous peoples, the encounter escalating into a series of murders and fatal disease. The Invention of the Other is at risk of being so artsy that it might alienate some viewers, but it will also leave many lasting impressions, such as witnessing the pure wonder and marvel of first contact between two fundamentally different worlds. I am still ruminating on the scene where one of the Korubo members of the expedition acts out, in comic fashion, how he singlehandedly killed five men from a rival group, only to later recount how his son and wife were dispatched one night by other rivals. The honesty, theatrics and lack of judgement in this scene reminded me of Joshua Oppenheimer’s 2012 film The Act of Killing. I will also remember the moment when three Korubo family members reunited. They crouched low and embraced each other, crying and laughing as they stroked each other’s heads and chests—actions that, taken out of context, resemble acts of grooming. It is strange how foreign, and yet how familiar, humans can be.

—Anson Ching

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