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    YANUNI

    Directed by Richard Ladkani
    Austria/Brazil/USA/Canada/Germany | 112 minutes | True Stories

  

Winner: Best Documentary Award, Special Mention

Executive Producer Laura Nix is expected to attend the January 2nd screening. 

Film Festival 2026

In Brazil’s Amazon, fearless Indigenous leader Juma Xipaia defends her land and people against forces threatening their survival. Her extraordinary courage and resilience is captured here—as mother, warrior, and a symbol of resistance for her people.

film synopsis

In the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, Juma Xipaia emerges as a fierce defender of her people and their ancestral land. Once a young woman vowing to fight for Indigenous rights, she now stands as the first female chief of the Middle Xingu. Facing violent threats from landowners and corporations amid political upheaval, Xipaia and her husband risk everything to protect their community, all while preparing to welcome a child. Shot with both gripping immediacy and emotional intimacy, Yanuni captures one woman’s unbreakable resolve amid Brazil’s escalating war over the environment, and the future of its Indigenous peoples.

film details

Director: Richard Ladkani
Producers: Anita Ladkani, Richard Ladkani, Juma Xipaia, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson, Phillip Watson
Screenwriter: Richard Ladkani
Cinematographers: Richard Ladkani
Editor: Georg M. Fischer
Music: Scott H. Salinas
Cast: Juma Xipaia, Hugo Loss
Country: Austria/Brazil/USA/Canada/Germany
Language: English
Year: 2025
Running Time: 112 minutes
Director Filmography: Sea of Shadows (2019), The Ivory Game (2016), The Devil’s Miner (2005)
Primary Company: Malaika Pictures
Contact Email: office@malaikapictures.com

Film Festival 2026