In 1778, a Portuguese cartographer and naturalist, Diogo, takes part in an expedition to the interior of South America. Almost immediately, the Portuguese are shown attacking a party of bathing female Guaicuru natives, raping and then killing them. Only two natives are spared: a young white boy who has grown up among the natives and Anote, the woman raped by Diogo. The Portuguese eventually reach a walled mission, and the expedition's captain is berated for endangering the peace treaty Portugal is attempting to establish with the natives. At the mission, Diogo sets about courting Anote, and the threat of Guaicuru revenge seems forgotten by all."Brave New Land" is both a frequently beautiful and gruesome film created as a tribute to the Guaicuru Indians (portrayed in the film by primarily non-actor natives of the Kadweu tribe). The beauty of the land and of native customs are displayed well, as are the brutality of the Portuguese invaders and the often shocking native rituals. We observe the natives performing ritual bloodletting and learn of their practice of killing all offspring after the firstborn. The latter is done, we are told, because Guaicuru mothers are accustomed to fleeing for their lives at a moment's notice, and they can carry only a single child with them. All such disturbing native practices seem grounded in necessity, unlike the Portuguese brutality.The filmmakers have decided to translate via subtitles only the Portuguese speech, leaving the audience ignorant regarding the content of Guaicuru conversations. This of course casts the audience into an uncomfortable association with the Portuguese. The character the audience is meant to identify with is Diogo. Though Diogo is a rapist and a coward, he also shows a certain tenderness to Anote in some later scenes. Anote, however, forgives him much sooner than the audience will, and here lies the fundamental trouble with the film: The story's conflict is entirely black and white, the audience is forced to dwell on the daily activities of the wrongdoers, and the religious and cultural positions of the Portuguese are heavily manipulated in the service of irony. Films like this which are essentially addressing racism or genocide can often only invoke rage and indignation without achieving a complexity which takes the issue to a new place (as is done, for example, by "American History X"). It could be said that Diogo's character displays at least nominal complexity. However, in truth, Diogo is just as flat and uninteresting as the other Portuguese, and he remains an unsympathetic coward throughout the film.One of the nicest moments in the film is the beautiful frame piece at the end, which does a fine job of defining the story as a document of Guaicuru history. At that moment we can believe that there is real and significant value in this sad tale for the native people of South America, and perhaps now that such a story has been told, surviving tribes like the Kadweu will experience a measure of healing.
