Original subtitles

This is the shaman and medicine man Aman Paksa in 2004.

I was an adventurous backpacker trying to make sense of the world.

For years I've been trying to get as far away from my own culture as possible.

I ended up here, deep in the jungle of Indonesia.

Aman Paksa had no money, electricity or machines.

It was amazing.

It was like a tale from my childhood had come to life.

I stayed in this dreamlike world for over a month

before I had to go back to my home in Norway.

It never occurred to me that Aman Paksa one day

would have a bank account and a cell phone.

Progress or tragedy?

I guess it all depends on the eyes of the beholder.

This is Muara Siberut, a patch of civilisation on an island covered with jungle.

It's been four years since I was here the first time.

I was never really able to let go of the jungle after returning to Norway.

Aman Paksa and his clan live in the remote inner regions of the island.

I have to hire a couple of guys to take me upriver.

I want to live in the jungle and document the pure and natural life

I experienced when I was here the first time.

I had left everything behind

and spent all my money on camera equipment and solar panels.

I have a one-way ticket to the jungle,

but Aman Paksa doesn't even know I'm coming back.

Aman Paksa's daughter, Ulak, invites me to wait at the house.

Yes.

I'm here again.

A couple of days later, Aman Paksa and his hunting team show up in the night.

Aman Paksa and the clan immediately initiate a long ceremony of rituals.

They have to make sure that the spirits of the jungle

and their ancestors get to know me and all the strange stuff I have brought.

Last time I stayed with Aman Paksa, I came with just a few things and no plans.

This time, I have heaps of equipment and I'm full of anticipation and ideas.

Aman Paksa seems a bit ambivalent,

but they take an immediate interest in the solar panels I have brought to charge my camera.

I'm excited to offer them permanent electric lighting.

Aman Paksa's wife, Bai Paksa, is harder to impress.

Bay Paksa doesn't speak Indonesian,

so I'm determined to learn the local language.

The Paksa's have a new son.

His name is Sonin.

Finally Aman Paksa has someone to inherit the land

and follow in his footsteps.

I'm not so enthusiastic about all the plastic stuff and clothing they have acquired.

Even though their lifestyle is basically the same, I feel like it's ruining my film.

Amanpaksa trades everything from lianas to pigs,

in order to get more modern accessories.

I feel an urge to leave those things out of the film,

But I decide that reality has to come first.

Mentawaians have harvested sagu trees for thousands of years.

It is the main food source for both humans and animals in Mentawai.

Aman Paksa's parents have processed sagu the traditional way all their life.

But their son has introduced some new ideas since the last time I visited.

In order to get plastic products, Aman Paksa needs money.

The instructions on how to make sagu started with a hungry kid

that got stuck in a ditch and became a tree.

It's impressive that only ten days of labour yields a year of primary food.

I'm thinking that, in many ways,

Aman Paksa's world is better developed than mine.

I don't think society I come from has found

a balance with the environment like the Mentawines have.

It's like they have reached a mature stability,

while my world suffers growing pains.

Aman Paxa works about three hours a day on average.

In his clan, there are small differences in wealth.

They live environmentally sustainable and there is a really low crime rate.

Basically, they seem like a bunch of happy people

Aman Paxa is a Sikerei, a Mmetawaian shaman and medicine man.

When someone is sick, people come to him for help.

It's fascinating how they have figured out the medicinal traits of different plants

through generations of trial and error.

But there is no denying that most of their health problems

can be avoided with simple measures.

I preach about better hygiene and the dangers of tobacco,

but it seems like nobody cares.

Half a year has passed.

I have never felt my body fall apart so quickly as in the jungle.

Infections, parasites, intestinal worms and poisonous insects make life miserable.

Nature is simply too close.

I try to make the jungle medicine work,

but eventually I have to surrender to my Norwegian emergency kit.

Ulak goes to Catholic school in the village Ugay, a few hours away.

Every once in a while, even Aman Paksa joins her to church.

The missionaries came to the island when Aman Paksa was a boy.

He never took much interest in the new religions,

but the church also serves a place to discuss other kinds of issues.

Ugai is a place where the jungle clans first connect to the world outside.

Other than the church, there is a school and some shops.

People in Ugai have started to specialise in order to earn money,

and Aman Paksa takes me to someone he knows.

With his earnings, the carpenter has managed to build a house

with a concrete foundation and a tin roof.

Amman Paksa is trying to find his own ways to earn money.

A couple of times a year, he paddles down

to the harbour town, Muara Siberut, to sell cocoa beans.

He is saving money to buy a motor for his canoe.

I enjoy the quiet paddle, but two days of back pain, sunburn

and achy muscles makes even me dream about a motor.

Muara Siberut is the trading center of the island.

There's not enough money to buy a motor now,

but there are heaps of other temptations.

Muara Siberut has become a noisy and dirty place in just a few years.

People from all over Indonesia are moving here to look for business.

They import cement from the mainland,

and use corals to build new roads and housing.

It's the trash of modernity that arrives first.

I feel like the modern world is spreading like cancer.

Everything it touches gets contaminated.

I came here to document the pristine culture

I had experienced when I first met Aman Paksa,

But I feel like everything is moving in the wrong direction.

Television crews and tourists are passing by in a hurry.

The Mentawains are left with small gifts and are craving for more.

I am witnessing the last moments of a disappearing world.

Following the rhythm of the jungle makes me forget about the world outside.

All of a sudden two years are gone.

It feels like I'm inside a time capsule.

So I've been...

I have been sitting here now for about an hour.

He ran after the monkey, and I

realised that I wouldn't be able to keep track with him.

So I stopped.

If anything happened to him, I would be pretty much lost.

Even after all this time in the jungle I get overwhelmed by my own helplessness.

At the same time, people from my own tribe have just passed by in the sky.

The flight trail bears witness of the coming of a new era.

At the villages the clans are joining the unsustainable rat race.

They are desperate to catch up with the rest of the world.

They want it all.

It's impossible to have a normal conversation with anyone.

Money this and money that everywhere I go.

I start to resent the whole situation and sometimes, even the people.

Eventually I help Aman Paksa to buy his motor.

At least that way I hope he doesn't have to relocate in order to get more money.

The motor also makes Aman Paksa able to step out from the jungle

and harvest food from the sea.

This is a totally new hunting ground for the clan,

and it feels nice to have some open space around us.

We set up camp at the beach and plan to explore the area for a few weeks.

There is an abundance of new and exciting foods.

The younger men have brought some new toys to play with.

Aman Paksa is hunting endangered sea turtles to feed his family.

It doesn't occur to them that they have the potential

to exterminate entire species.

Nature used to have the upper hand, but now the power balance is shifting.

It's human history on repeat.

Even though we are aware of the consequences,

we continue our destructive behavior.

On the mainland, people are selling thousands of sea turtle eggs,

a genocide in comparison.

I can't see that I have the right to deny my friends

the benefits of modern development.

Life is gradually becoming easier,

But Bai Paksa doesn't get to enjoy it for long.

She suddenly dies from a stomach illness.

All the death and sickness feels unnecessary.

So many lives are lost in vain.

I feel sorry for Aman Paksa.

I've experienced the cruelty of the jungle myself by now.

I understand why Aman Paksa looks for a better life.

Aman Paksa makes the journey to the mainland for the first time in his life.

I promised to help him find a job so he can earn money.

We arrive in Padang,

a city with over 1 million people on the west of Sumatra.

Just before we arrived in Padang, an earthquake had struck the city.

The restoration opens up opportunities in the construction business.

Aman Paksa figures that a chainsaw will help him get a job.

When he asks me to buy him one, I feel like I can't say no.

I've been clinging to the Mentawaian past for too long.

I see that the chainsaw will make Aman Paksa's life much easier.

I want to help him as a friend, like he has helped me to survive in the jungle.

Aman Paksa invites some of his clan members over to help out.

They are hired to build a cafe.

The cafe owner, Bang Id, is a former big city gangster

who has withdrawn to lead a quiet life with his family.

Yes.

Bang Id is paying the Mentawaians well,

but it turns out they are failing to deliver according to the contract.

I find myself agreeing with the gangster.

If the Mentawai's want it all, they need to learn the rules of the game as well.

It seems ingrained in our human nature

to constantly move faster and reach further.

I think of the ants I have seen, working meticulously,

but seemingly ignorant of the anthill they contribute to create.

Maybe we, just like the ants,

are about to build something greater than ourselves.

After the job in Padang, Aman Paksa returns to Mentawai.

He settles in a village to continue his pursuit for money and stuff.

Four years later, I want to see how he is doing.

I meet a skinny Aman Paksa with a village haircut.

He tells me that he almost died from smoking.

His slow paced life and short work days are long gone,

but he has managed to build a new house and buy all the stuff he wanted.

When I first met Aman Paksa he wanted Sonin to inherit the land,

become a medicine man and live a traditional life like himself.

The future of the clans are going in a different direction.

The land is booming with people, cars, banks and cell phone towers.

It's too late for regrets.

I invite Aman Paksa for a weekend holiday in Jakarta.

A modern speedboat can now take us to the mainland in only 3 hours,

instead of 12 hours with a shabby old wooden boat.

Just landed in Jakarta.

The Mentawaian culture has made it to the museum.

I have never felt this far away from the jungle,

but Aman Paksa is inspired.

Mentawai is driving fast into the future.

I wonder who is actually holding the wheel.

We seem to want what the people in power have.

Judging from the result, what kind of values are we really left with?

Maybe modernity is more about what's in our mind,

than what we have materially?

We have grown closer after years of beign apart.

Past struggles have been lost in time and what's left is a feeling of love.

Aman Paksa has made the choice to continue his original life in the jungle.

I choose to believe that the future is looking brighter than the past.

If our civilisation is human made, hopefully we are able to make

a conscious choice about the future shape of our creation.