_{EAMI by Paz Encina}

Encina, who previously won the Fipresci Award at the Cannes Film Festival with her 2006 feature Hamaca Paraguaya, has long been acknowledged as one of Latin America’s leading filmmakers. Revolver’s involvement in her new film came about partly by chance. Back in Spring 2019, the Dutch company was attending CineMart with one of its own features in development. It was there that Ilse Hughan of Fortuna Films alerted Revolver’s principals to EAMI, a project that she had been working since the start.

“She [Hughan] introduced us to EAMI. Back then it was in quite early stages, of course, but had back-up from, for example, Fondation Cartier, The Ford Foundation and the Hubert Bals Fund,” Saivosalmi remembers. And when Ilse showed the Revolver producer some of the director’s previous films, the effect was immediate. Kirsi loved Paz’s work.

“It [Encina’s work] really gives space to the people and the issues she cares about. It is very passionate but very patient storytelling… I also really fell in love with her director’s vision on EAMI.”

By October 2019, Revolver secured production funding for the project via the NFF+HBF production grant, a scheme jointly run by The Netherlands Film Fund Hubert Bals Fund.

EAMI is set in the Paraguayan Chaco, an area low in population but with the highest deforestation in the world, and among the Ayoreo Totobiegosode people that live there in voluntary isolation. The film deals with their mythology and memories in a period when they are being forced to leave their own lands. The eponymous main character is a little girl who wanders the rainforest after her village is destroyed.

The project has a large and impressive array of producers. Gabriela Sabaté of Sabaté Films in Paraguay was leading a team of collaborators which included not just Revolver and Fortuna but everybody from Louverture Films in the US to revered Mexican director Carlos Reygadas, Black Forest Films in Germany, two French producers (Eaux Vives and MPM Film) and an Argentinian producer (Gaman Cine). Many of the partners had already worked with Encina on previous films.

“It was very clear that everybody was involved because they cared for the project,”Saivosalmi observes of her collaborators. “They are very established, all of them, and for me personally, it was definitely an amazing opportunity to learn from all of them.” She adds that Sabaté was “super respectful and very appreciative to everyone involved… every voice has been heard and everyone has had the chance to give comments. That has been one of the best parts of this process.”

Thanks to Covid, South America was under strict lockdown for large periods of time, causing major logistical challenges, delays and rising costs. Many funding bodies in the region also knotted their purse strings, delaying the last steps of financing. This was when a lot of patience was necessary.

Saivosalmi is delighted with how EAMI has turned out. “I really love that the director made the film with the Ayoreo people and so it is on their terms, with their own perspective and lens, instead of about them,” she reflects of the way that Encina intertwines folkloric elements with urgent political questions. “And I love the animalistic and shamanistic aspects of this world… how naturally the humans and the spirits, the animals and the plants [co-exist] - they’re all one.”

Encina made a revealing remark to her producers once the picture editing was over and the colour correction had been done. She said, “ok, we are halfway there.” For the director, what we hear matters as much as what we see.

“There is not much dialogue. It is really about the sound and the presence of nature itself,” Saivosalmi notes, marvelling at the detailed sound design.

Amsterdam-based VFX and post-production house Filmmore played a key role in the project. The producer singles out the work of colourist Martin Klein. “He was working throughout online with the filmmaker and the DOP, who were both in Argentina at the time.”

Just before IFFR began, French outfit MPM Premium came on board to handle international sales on the film.

Now, Saivosalmi is turning her eye to other projects on Revolver Amsterdam’s slate, among them Under the Naked Sky* by Lilian Sijbesma and Crossing* by Jacqueline van Vugt, both in post-production. In development are Utopia* by Juri Rechinsky, and Memory by Vladlena Sandu (supported through IDFA).

And, yes, if the chance arises to work again with her collaborators from EAMI, Kirsi would leap at the chance.

“I hope this film gets to travel internationally as much as possible,” the producer states. She adds that the story it tells should have a universal resonance in spite of its Paraguayan settings. “Nature bleeds everywhere. As we speak, this is happening around the world.”

For more information on IFFR 2022, click here. Check out the full Dutch selection here.
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*Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund and Production Incentive