One year after “Operation Hope” which culminated in the rescue of the Mucutuy brothersfour children missing in the Colombian jungle, the documentary “Lost in the Amazon” of Max Through the testimonies of its protagonists, it portrays the search for the four children lost after the small plane in which they were traveling crashed along with four adults who died on impact.
In conversation with BioBioChile, the producer Jaime Escallón, the director Cristina Nieto and the journalist Jose Castaño – one of the few who saw the event first-hand -, who led the investigation of those 40 tense days that put the world on edge, explained how the documentary not only chronicles the miraculous rescue, but also explores how this event became a symbol of national unity in Colombia, fusing indigenous spirituality with military and community efforts.
With moving testimonies and exclusive material, the documentary highlights the vastness and symbolic interconnection of the Amazon, seeking to even become a moving and authentic work of art.
According to Escallón, for this purpose they accessed “first-hand testimonies from the children’s grandparents, from Ana Mendoza – the sister of one of the indigenous leaders who died -, from the owner of the plane, from soldiers and from people who spent days covering every centimeter of that jungle.” All this, just weeks after the children were found on June 9, 2023.
Thus, he assures that his story portrays how “the army and the indigenous people and many other institutions were working closely aligned and were also listening to the jungle and paying attention to the spirituality of the indigenous people to find these children after 40 days, in a absolutely critical moment, because they were not going to be able to survive for much longer.”
“We have some very emotional testimonies from people, and we also have videos and photographs that belong to them,” explains the filmmaker, expressing that in this material “a number of elements and data and absolutely powerful images appear that make this documentary not a journalistic or news one: It is an artistic work created from this eventand the experience, and the way those characters narrate it.”
This “is how we managed to articulate all these people who decided to tell the story to us, who trusted us, who shared their images, their experiences and that we managed to articulate them in a simple, honest, transparent narrative, without artifices and that, I believe me, it surprises and moves what it did to us in the experience and we hope what it does to the viewers.”
In this way, the documentary portrays the more than 1,250 kilometers traveled in the Amazon between the departments of Caquetá and Guaviare, by 120 uniformed personnel, 70 indigenous people, helicopters and rescue dogs that participated in the search.
Nieto, for his part, states that what is shocking about this story “is not only that four very young children survived for 40 days in the jungle, but also that “They became a symbol for a country.”
Colombia “joined in a search, in which “Two historically opposing groups decided to share a single objective and understand each other, which is something that does not always happen.”
In fact, during those weeks, teams from the Military Forces, emergency agencies and local indigenous communities joined forces to find the four brothers.
Likewise, he considers that this story highlights “a place as unique as the Amazon, what happens there, how the people who live there live, what difficulties they have in their daily lives, and portrays in some way “Through a very specific fact, which is the survival of these four children and how they managed to do it, many other perspectives and prisms of a country.”
The spirit of the jungle
When exploring the Amazon, and the children’s search in its dangerous landscapes, a key feature was the spirituality of the indigenous people in the area, and the mythology attributed to the jungle.
In this sense, Castaño, who experienced the rescue in person, assures that “This story cannot be understood or told without the universe of Amazonian spirits, and it matters very little if we believe a lot in that.”
“The truth is that this symbolic but also real universe of spirits runs through the stories of those who participated in the search for the children,” he adds. “Sometimes we forget the size of the Amazon. If it were a country, it would be the sixth largest on Earth, and that enormous territory is inhabited not only by the enormous number of trees and species, but also by all the interactions that exist between those beings that inhabit it.”
These interactions, he notes, “are what precisely define the Amazonian complexity. That is the setting of this story, which in itself also establishes a series of oddities, singularities, that is, more, stranger, more complex than this, impossible. So this documentary is a huge effort, a gigantic effort of decantation and clarity.”
Beyond the “character” that the Amazon becomes, there are two other complexes to deal with, but which also marked the story and the news surrounding the rescue of the children: that of Manuel Ranoque, stepfather of the brothers accused of having raped to the oldest of the children; and that of the dog Wilson, who disappeared during the search.
Regarding the first case, the directors explain that although they had access to exclusive information on the matter, they decided to leave the case in the hands of the courts since it does not directly concern the rescue itself.
“I hope that this situation, especially for the children, is resolved appropriately, but that is the decision,” says Escallón. “That doesn’t mean we didn’t investigate it, we investigated a lot, but that’s why we didn’t include it.”
As for Wilson, although he has his place in the documentary, it does not coincide with some stories that have circulated about his role in the search. According to Castaño, “in the vertigo of the news, a year ago, many things were said that time has later revealed.”
“Wilson, indeed, was very important in those first versions of the story, and is still important today as a character, but I can tell you that Wilson got lost on day 13 of the search. They found the plane until the 15th. That is, she is not even present when they find it and only then do they realize that the children are alive and have gone for a walk in the jungle.
During the search for the minors, the weather conditions of the operation were so challenging that, according to reports, 14 indigenous people abandoned the mission due to health problems.
Unfortunately, “Wilson was never found again, and later it was known with complete certainty that the dog was never with the children because they later reported it. So let’s say that he is a character that has been placed in another place in the story other than the first place in which the story initially placed him.
“What it does, what the documentary does, is precisely to situate the search, and that is where it highlights its greatest virtues and its greatest commitment. It is a window, the closest one can look at this story,” says the journalist.
The documentary, produced by En Cero Coma Producciones (Fremantle) and Lulo Films, can now be seen on Max screens.
