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MAUI

By Elias DANNER

True Story - Production 2023

When Maui is born with a cleft lip and palate in the indigenous Kogi community of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, his fate seems decided - he won’t survive. But then his life takes an unexpected turn… The extraordinary true story of an unusual Kogi boy and his faraway Uitoto “twin“.

- Year of production
- 2023
- Genres
- True Story, Social issues, Documentary
- Countries
- GERMANY, FRANCE
- Languages
- ENGLISH, GERMAN, SPANISH
- Budget
- 0 - 0.3 M$
- Duration
- 85 mn
- Director(s)
- Elias DANNER
- Producer(s)
- Alissa AUBENQUE (Calista Films)
- Synopsis
- This documentary portrays the parallel paths of two indigenous Colombians, Maui and Santiago, who are linked not only by the fact that they were both born with cleft lips and palates, but also because they both bridge western and indigenous civilizations.
  
  Following Maui, Julia, Margarita, and Fermin before, during and after Maui’s cleft surgery, we witness him growing into his life at this cultural meeting point. Portraying an almost unbelievably similar path, Santiago is already actively living and exploring the cultural bridge his life is providing – with all the challenges and opportunities it entails.
  
  In the beginning of this film, we are introduced to Julia, Maui’s parents Margarita and Fermin and the indigenous Kogi community in the Sierra Nevada. Margarita and Fermin recall the challenging events unfolding around Maui’s birth. A Kogi elder and spiritual leader (Mamo) Manuel provides his perspective regarding the birth of Maui and the Kogi people which allows the audience to experience the story through native eyes.
  
  We then turn to Santiago in the Netherlands, who is at this moment trying to actively go back and forth between the perspective of the western upbringing by his foster parents and the indigenous Uitoto culture of his birth mother. We follow his journey into the remote Amazon region, opening his next Uitoto chapter. Throughout his whole life he has felt the urge to explore this heritage in order to feel more at peace with his role living between these two civilizations. A longing Maui is likely to experience when he comes of ages.
  
  While preparing Maui for his first cleft surgery, Julia tells her story of leaving Switzerland behind to build a new life in the Sierra Nevada. We learn about her longing for independence and freedom, unexpectedly evolving her family to a meeting point of the indigenous Kogi and western civilization.
  
  At the very end of this film, when Maui successfully receives his first cleft surgery and Santiago returns from the Amazon, Santiago travels to the Sierra Nevada to meet Maui, who seems to be his twin he never met before.