Kuarup 1963

Directed by Heinz Forthmann

Aspects of the life of the Kamaiurá, an indigenous tribe that inhabits the Upper Xingu. The manioc-based food, the training with bow and arrow and the work carried out by the young Indian, the girls learn how to spin, and the boys develop the knowledge of the tribe with the shamans. An important rite is the Kuarup, which honors a great dead leader. The procedures for the rite: the decoration of tree trunks, the painting of bodies, the dance choreography, the physical confrontation between the Indians. Finally, the trunks are taken by children to the waters of the Xingu River.