Alma

The second entry in French filmmaker Patrick Rouxel's “Rainforest Trilogy” (the first was his 2009 Indonesian-based Green, reviewed in VL Online-5/10), Alma takes viewers to Brazil, where the local lumber and cattle industries have razed great expanses of rainforest to accommodate their respective trades. Presented without narration, the documentary begins with an idyllic look at the forest's animal species—a stunning sequence depicting the complex ecosystem—which is sadly followed by bulldozers and chainsaws that permanently disfigure the landscape, coupled with an intentionally set fire that kills off defenseless creatures. One of the film's most horrifying moments finds a tortoise viewing the flames while remaining trapped by the surrounding inferno (the charred corpse is shown a few minutes later). With nature harshly muscled aside by the industrial interlopers, sawmills busily reduce the once-mighty trees to planks while dairy farmers round up sickly looking cows and their emaciated calves. At one point, the hungry young have their jaws roped shut while the herders help themselves to the cows' milk. A nearby slaughterhouse becomes the final destination for most of the cattle (Brazil has recently become the world's leading exporter of beef and leather hides), while a rodeo brought in to entertain the newly arrived forest villagers further exploits the bovines. Alma is an extremely depressing but also very provocative film—a striking, crisply edited, disturbing cinematic essay. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)