When our own image becomes the image of otherness: Amazonia, 1980. Imagine: Deep in the jungle, images of everyday life in Germany appear out of the darkness – images of men working in mines and factories, the colorful wallpaper of the era, the traditional German family with two children. What sort of impression of us is produced? What are the Huni Kuin led to believe about the lives of the “whites,” those who posses metal, the “rich“? The indigenous group’s own creation myth grapples with questions of the other, categorizing humanity, and distinguishing between various peoples. Indeed, vivid imaginings of what constitutes “us” and the “others” are anchored in their culture. After many years of fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon region, director Barbara Keifenheim decided to confront the indigenous people living there with a film depicting German big-city life. The diverse reactions of her Peruvian audience are a true source of enrichment, enabling us to take an unvarnished look at our own culture and allowing us to understand why the double meaning of their word “naua huni“ – white man and hallucination – is no coincidence.
