The Arhua­co live in the high­est moun­tains of Colom­bia. They wear their tra­di­tion­al white clothes as they have for many cen­turies and main­tain their cul­ture and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, which is tight­ly inter­wo­ven with their nat­ur­al world. Alexan­der Hick chose to approach them through the land­scape, cre­at­ing com­pelling images of a rit­u­al­is­tic unity of people, lakes, ice, and rocks. By let­ting them talk, the film also revis­its the cen­tu­ry-old his­to­ry of the Arhua­co, about which very little is known. Chris­t­ian mis­sion­ar­ies tried to change them, and plan­ta­tions were built on their land where they were forced to work as slaves. During the civil war, they were caught in the cross­fire, while some of them fought for the FARC.
Just as the cli­mate change is alter­ing the land­scape, the self-under­stand­ing and resilience of this indige­nous com­mu­ni­ty, which can only live undis­turbed and follow their tra­di­tion­al ways in the most remote cor­ners of the moun­tains, is crum­bling. The modern world has become too omnipresent. What does the future hold in store for the Arhuaco?