All language subtitles for nwtpfn

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.