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The “Tehuelches”, a small native tribe, live in the reservation of Kamusu Aike in southern Patagonia, in the most remote and inhospitable region of Argentina – just where they have been living for centuries. Tehuelche means “Men from far away” in Mapudungun, their native language.
A handful of families, the last descendants of the Tehuelches, have settled around their school, living without running water nor electricity. They huddle together for a little warmth and companianship in their struggle for surivival in the harsh Patagonian climate.
The Tehuelche are outstanding horsemen and love the freedom of wide open spaces – and they wish to live in peace with their environment. Just a few miles from the reservation, big oil companies and great land owners encroach on their lands and pollute their ground. They don’t even compensate by supplying the tribe with water or electricity. The Tehuelches are threatened by extinction; the world seems to have forgotten about them. The elder tribes people remain unaware of the danger, but the younger generation will have to make difficult choices between tradition and progress... Like little Gaston, a young boy who learns how to ride his first bike and who will one day have to decide whether to stay or to seek fortunes elsewhere.
The film follows the Tehuelches throughout a year of changing seasons, glorious landscapes, endless horizons or wild gallops among large herds... Winter evenings spent listening to stories of their ancestors, skies heavy with clouds and torn by the winds... a bit like in the old Westerns.
“Legacy of the Winds” might well be the story of the last days of the Tehuelches.
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Program 17/35
Documentary
