Damiana Kryygi

Argentine filmmaker Alejandro Fernández Mouján's disturbing and compelling documentary traces the tragic history and ongoing struggles of the Aché, an indigenous tribe living in Paraguay's jungles and rural areas. The central focus of the film is the titular girl, who was captured in 1896 during a raid on an Aché encampment by Paraguayan ranchers. Believed to be three years old, the girl was given the name Damiana by her captors and was shuttled about as a domestic servant in Paraguay and later in Argentina, where she would die of tuberculosis at the presumed age of 14. Prior to her death, Damiana was the subject of a photographic study by a visiting German ethnographer studying Latin America's native peoples. Damiana was denied the dignity of a funeral—instead, her remains were divided between museums in Berlin (which obtained her skull) and Buenos Aires (given the rest of her skeleton). The mysterious life and death of the child—who was renamed Kryygi by her tribe—was put together by Aché activists who successfully traced the child's remains and petitioned the museums for her skull and bones, which were then buried in a tribal ceremony in Paraguay. Part historical detective story and part film essay about the continued discrimination that the Aché face in Paraguay, Damiana Kryygi is a heartbreaking documentary. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)