Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.BZ

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.BZ

[waves splashing]

♪

Sergio: Do you want me to tell you a story?

Girl: Yeah.

-Okay. -[heart monitor beeping]

[sobbing]

Hi, you little monster.

Sergio: We waited and wished for three years

before you came into our lives.

We named you "Koa,"

a Rapa Nui word that means "joy."

But it’s also the name of a tree

that your ancestors used

to build canoes and sail across the Pacific.

This is where they landed.

This is where I was born.

Sergio Sr.: We are an island.

We are the most isolated town in the world.

If we didn’t have the history we have,

I don’t know how we would have survived.

Sergio: Ever since outsiders first saw our moai,

they have tried to write our story.

[dramatic music intro]

[in French]

Female narrator: [in English] The most mysterious place on this planet.

Male narrator: Withered into a treeless desert,

the moai were moved with a mystical energy

...been made possible by extra terrestrial visitors.

Sergio: Outsiders named our island "Easter,"

and said our past was a mystery,

bringing millions of visitors to our shores.

[indigenous music playing]

[in Spanish]

Sergio: [in English] Having you has made us worry more

about the future of this island,

and what will be left for you to inherit.

We are not the only ones.

The sound working okay?

[in Spanish]

[truck engine rumbling]

[radio blasting tropical music]

Sergio: [in English] left Whenever we go home,

my dad loves to drive us around

and show us what’s changed.

Look at this-- Ram, a big truck.

Kids here are following the same...

[sighs] ...same thing as elsewhere.

-Lorena! -Hello.

What... yeah.

You want a big truck, you got money,

you buy a big truck.

Here you got a bunch of cabins.

That’s really nice.

Six...

seven...

eight, nine,

10 cabins, man!

Many people build the cabins and build the cabins,

in so many different places.

Sergio: What do you think has caused the building here?

[giggling] Very simple,

count the tourists coming every plane.

Sergio Sr.: I mean, today, Easter Island,

we have the highest per capita income in Chile.

Beno: You can see how much is the investment on the road.

Sergio: My friend Beno and I grew up across the street from each other.

[in Spanish]

Sergio: [in English] Back then, the street in front of our house was a dirt road.

It’s just now being paved for the first time.

Beno: It’s changing a lot.

Sometimes I say, "Okay, good, because now if I do my laundry,

there’s not going to get all this dust on the clothes and all this."

On the other side I say, "Well,

it’s never going to be like it used to be," you know?

Is it good? Is it bad?

And we start hiking here,

all the way up over to Mahatua.

Beno: When I grew up, we had one flight a week.

Today it’s 10, 11 planes a week.

So, in everything,

even if you’re a fisherman or in agriculture,

you will live from tourism.

Tourism is the biggest industry on the island.

[airplane engine roaring]

[in Spanish]

Sergio: [in English] There’s one woman who works in a place

where none of the tour buses go.

[glass clinking]

[In Rapa Nui]

[In Spanish]

[In Rapa Nui]

[in Spanish, giggling]

[in Rapa Nui]

[In Spanish]

[in Rapa Nui]

[in Rapa Nui]

[in Spanish]

[in Rapa Nui]

[in Spanish]

[in Rapa Nui]

[in Spanish]

[saw grinding]

Sergio: [in English] My dad has held some big roles on Rapa Nui.

[hammering]

He was the first native governor in 1984.

Today, he’s building the first mall on the island.

Sergio Sr.: gio: This is perhaps the largest construction we have today.

And then, in the space here,

this is going to be the first elevator on this island.

But that’s all right, you have to bring something in.

I’m sure the little kids will be happy pushing buttons

going up and down here.

That’s part of the fun.

This mall was not thought for a touristic purpose.

It was thought to facilitate the life

of the people in town--

from snack bars to beauty shops.

Sergio: Are there people that criticize this building

or the idea that Rapa Nui is becoming not Rapa Nui?

Yes, I think in any very traditional community,

once you bring new things in, there’s always...

a certain degree of uncertainty,

whether it’s good or it’s bad.

But after all, Easter Island is not isolated

just like the past anymore.

The island has to develop-- like any culture is changing.

It’s nothing static.

It’s the kind of thing I’m going to put on the second floor...

so that kids can play in it.

It’s plastic, but so what?

They are playing with plastic all their lives.

Sergio: f thing Your grandfather has always brought

new ideas to the island.

When I was a teenager, he built the first floor

of this building to house a new type of grocery store,

one modeled after those he had seen in America.

For the first time,

instead of asking for products at the counter,

customers could freely browse isles of goods.

To him, America was full of opportunity.

This is where he graduated from university

and became the first Rapa Nui archeologist.

This is where he fell in love with

and married my American mother.

And this, is where they took my sister and I

so that we could be educated to succeed in the outside world.

But leaving the island at the age that I did

meant that I never learned the Rapa Nui language.

We thought it had no relevance outside.

I wish I could teach it to you now,

because I want you to know your culture,

and language is at the heart of that.

[in Spanish]

[in English] Hello there.

[in Spanish]

[in English] Now we’re going to do this in English.

Ready? Do you see yourself as half-Rapa Nui, half-American,

or half-Rapa Nui, half-Chilean?

Definitely not Chilean, because...

just culturally, my father is Rapa Nui and my mom’s American.

The American culture...

uh...

[chuckling] ...I think is confusing.

The generation of my parents

speak Rapa Nui as first language.

Although, our generation, most of it,

doesn’t speak it, or speaks it very badly.

[singing in Rapa Nui]

Enrique: [in Spanish]

Mahani: [in English] What will happen if we lose our language?

We lose all the meaning of ancient stories

which are told in Rapa Nui--

the deep meaning, which comes from a word

which sometimes cannot be translated.

[Rapa Nui singing continues]

[song ends]

[piano playing loudly]

Girl: [in Spanish]

Mahani: [in English] After a year, when the teacher was about to leave,

my mom said, "Okay, we’re moving to Chile

so you have a chance to study."

[playing Beethoven’s "Für Elise"]

A very famous Chilean pianist invited me

to go to many countries with him as a child...

but each time I’d come and spend time here,

I could see the change from one year to another.

And I was thinking, "How can I, with piano, help?"

[in Spanish]

[children laughing]

Mahani: [in English] As a music school they learn Bach

and their traditional songs.

That’s the beginning of the cultural rescue we want to do.

[in Spanish]

Enrique:

[hammering]

Mahani:

[honking]

[street vendor yelling]

Beno: [in English] You just walk in the main street

and you just see so many other new businesses,

so many other people that you never knew before.

The population is increasing,

and most of the population increases

not because Rapa Nuis are having more babies,

but because more people are coming to the island to live.

Sergio Sr.: People who are moving to this island from Chile or elsewhere,

it’s almost 55% of the total population.

Mahani: People just keep coming, coming, coming to live here,

and that means a problem with the garbage--

the whole archeological impact.

It’s just a whole chain of things,

which can be solved with one law.

Sergio: lish] In 2010, in order to reduce the strain

on Rapa Nui’s finite resources,

our people proposed a law that would control how long

non-residents could stay on the island.

It got pushed from the authorities here.

It went to Congress, and they stopped it.

Why did they stop it?

Because the 15 million Chileans won’t be happy

that there’s a place that they say,

"It’s Chile and we can not go and live there."

Sergio: lish] Its progress in the Chilean Congress was slow,

-which angered some Rapa Nui. -[loud protesting]

[in Spanish]

Sergio: [in English] And they protested using the only power that they had,

blocking access to what tourists wanted.

But others thought it was wrong

to close off the moai for political gain.

For many Rapa Nui, closing the parks meant shutting off

those tourist dollars that fed our economy

and our new way of life.

[in Spanish]

[people arguing loudly]

Sergio: [in English] You can see our ancient history almost anywhere you look.

But since that time, so much more has happened.

After Europeans arrived, our people started dying from new diseases.

Nearly 1,500 of us were taken to Peru as slaves,

and foreigners fought over control of our island.

Mayor: any Rapa Nui, In 1888, the island agreed to give to Chile

the sovereignty of the island.

Sergio: In the early 1900s,

Chile rented our island to a Scottish sheep company.

To protect the sheep, the Rapa Nui were forced to leave our ancestral lands

and corralled into one small area,

which eventually became the town of Hanga Roa.

[in Spanish]

Enrique:

[piano playing]

Sergio Sr.: [in English] When Easter Island was annexed to Chile,

personally, I think it was not terrible at all. It was good.

It was an act of salvation for Rapa Nui’s little community.

Just to think, in 1877, the population of Rapa Nui was 111 persons.

It was protected by the Chilean to grow slowly.

So around 1966, we were about a thousand people.

Sergio: That same year, my uncle led a movement

demanding full citizenship for our people.

It gave us more rights than ever before,

and we started to regain control of our lives

by working within this new system.

[people chanting]

But being part of Chile is complicated,

even though our passport says Chilean,

there is a cultural divide that often causes conflict.

[in Rapa Nui]

Sergio: [in English] Today, some of us think

that independence will solve this problem.

But that, too, is complicated.

If you become independent as an island,

you go below underdevelopment.

You have no resource, so what do you end up doing?

You sell the rights to fishing,

the rights to other things, and you become very dependent

on the money of those who pay.

We are interdependent all around the world.

[baby cooing]

[bell clanking]

Look... [making beating sounds]

What is that?

-Uh... -Sergio: Ooohh...

Elena’s Mother: Oh my gosh, it’s a recycling truck.

Sergio: It’s a recycling truck.

Sergio: It’s easy to forget that almost everything we own

comes from somewhere else.

But anything we throw away stays where we live...

-[cooing] -...on our island...

...that can be a problem.

[truck rumbling and beeping]

Piru: [in Spanish]

[truck rumbling and beeping]

[thunderclap]

Sergio:

[in Rapa Nui]

Sergio: [in English] For as hard as it is to get waste off the island,

the planet seems to want to bring it back to us.

Piru: [in Spanish]

Sergio: [in English] Rapa Nui is located in what’s called a gyre,

where swirling ocean currents gather floating trash.

With every wave, we’re reminded

of just how connected we are to the rest of the world.

Piru: [in Spanish]

Enrique:

[both chuckling]

[chuckling]

[Enrique singing in Rapa Nui]

[everyone joins in singing]

[in Spanish]

Mahani:

[playing "Chopsticks"]

[children giggling]

[in English] Sadly, the biggest challenge is...

I mean, it’s, uh... it’s money. [chuckling]

[in Spanish]

[ukulele strumming]

Enrique: [in Rapa Nui]

Mahani: [in English] We have a unique place in the world,

which is called "Rapa Nui." We need to take care of it

’cause when this place dies, nothing, nobody,

no money, nothing, will be able to bring it back.

Sergio: For decades the moai have fed our people

by drawing foreign money to our lonely island.

To me, the moai represent much more

than what our ancestors could do.

They show me what impact the past can have on our future.

[Piru speaking in a mix of French, Spanish and Rapa Nui]

[calling, sing-song]

Piru: [in Spanish]

[children giggling, people clapping and singing]

[children giggling, people clapping]

Mahani:

Woman: [on bullhorn]

Sergio: t impact [in English] ve When the movie came,

my dad, the anthropologist,

pulled out his own camera and watched.

Man: Action!

Woman: [in Spanish]

Security: [in English] No pictures! No pictures!

Sergio Sr.: d out It’s my island, asshole.

Sergio Sr.: [speaking Rapa Nui]

Man:

Sergio Sr.: Rapa Nui]

[speaking English] Actor: There’s a real danger in all this.

Why has everything got to be so difficult?

Piru: [in Spanish]

[dramatic music playing]

[gun firing, shrieking]

[in Spanish]

Francis: nish]

Sergio: [in English] Our people would’ve changed one way or another,

because the world was getting smaller.

Around this time,

the dictator Augusto Pinochet, lost power.

Chile began to trade more with other countries.

Even NASA came to Rapa Nui to expand the runway

into an emergency landing site for the US Space Shuttle.

The shuttle never showed up,

but the new runway brought bigger planes.

Now, anyone could come.

Anything could come.

And why would we ever go back?

Remember the first time you tasted yogurt?

I do. You loved it.

But, what if to protect the future of the place that you love,

you had to let go of the things that you love?

Could you make that choice?

[bike engine roaring]

[in Rapa Nui]

[in Spanish]

[shifting]

[chuckles]

Mahani:

Enrique:

Enrique:

Mahani:

[waves rolling]

Enrique:

[people chanting in Rapa Nui]

[people clapping and chanting]

Woman: [in English] Thank you for being here,

for gathering together, for joining the marriage,

the unity of two dreamers--

and not only dreamers, brave warriors.

[blessing in Rapa Nui]

[chanting continues]

Woman: A worldwide example,

for the wellbeing of Rapa Nui.

Piru: Cock-a-doodle-doo!

[in Spanish]

Francis:

[engine rumbling]

Female announcer: [in English] Energy and vitality to break through

that role of older male politicians

that most people are fed up with.

[Piru humming]

Piru: [in Spanish]

Francis:

[Piru speaking in Rapa Nui]

Francis:

Sergio: [in English] The funny thing about being in love,

is that it’s not always easy,

and sometimes you have to give up a lot.

But being with someone else teaches you to compromise,

and allows you to accomplish more than you ever could alone.

[conversing in Rapa Nui]

Woman: [in Spanish]

[in Rapa Nui]

[in Rapa Nui then Spanish]

[in Rapa Nui]

[in Spanish]

[in Rapa Nui]

[in Spanish]

[people screaming in Spanish]

[in Rapa Nui]

[on the radio]

[in Spanish]

[in Rapa Nui]

Sergio:[in English] lish] You and I come from the Miru Clan,

who once lived along the North Coast.

Before I was born, my dad restored our moai here.

And many years later, I asked your mom to marry me

in the shadow of those same moai.

No matter where we live,

this place keeps calling us back.

And one day, I hope it calls to you.

[thunderclap, rain]

Sergio Sr.: [in Spanish]

[in English] Well, the construction is still advancing.

There’s a heavy rain today,

so this limits the advancement of the work.

One, if you are working outside of the building, obviously, you get wet, wet.

But you are personnel that work.

You just see one arriving, and it is 11 in the morning.

So, they say, "I’m sorry I could not come because it was raining."

Or, "I’m sorry,

the TV is more entertaining than walking under the rain," you know?

After all, we are in a nice Polynesian environment, why rush, okay?

But somebody who wants to be a entrepreneur

and has a deadline of doing the work,

will have to stay and get nervous,

or, simply, take it easy.

Since I was educated in the Western societies,

I like a schedule and to get things done within time.

[thunderclap]

Sergio: My dad goes to Santiago, the capital of Chile,

at least once a month,

because here he can buy the supplies

and get the medical attention that the island can’t provide.

He met us here, on your first trip to the island.

Sergio: What is your drive for...

Sergio Sr.: You’re talking about money making?

Yeah, or just growth, and the idea of it.

It is utopia for people to say,

"Oh, well, you drive for money."

Everybody drives for that to exist.

It’s not that money is the goal or the objective.

Money is the means by which you attain other things,

for improving your life.

[cars honking]

This is the big city of Santiago.

We’re right in the middle of the cement forest.

I was growing up in an almost subsistence economy,

and we would have one ship a year to visit the island,

so, normally,

we’d eat taro and sweet potatoes.

Peaches.

And to have a can of peaches,

I mean, you would talk for months about it.

And to have one apple, as the ship go by,

my father would have an apple and split it in 10 little pieces

so we can taste it.

So, in my case, as you grow up, you are also very insecure

as to whether you’d get the money for what you’d need.

So, what do you do then? You strive and work hard.

[crickets chirping]

Enrique: [in Spanish] h]

[people chattering]

[melodic piano playing]

Mahani:

[piano playing continues]

[singing in Rapa Nui]

[in English] Let’s walk this way.

Let’s go see the other one, okay?

Sergio: There’s a lot of noise in this world...

telling us that we’ll fail,

that we’re too idealistic...

[giggling]

...that what we want is not possible.

Elena: Yay!

But it’s just noise.

[violin playing]

[in Spanish]

[in English] Thank you.

Mahani: The walls are done with tires.

Wait, you made the walls from tires?

Yeah and compacted it.

Adnan: We have seen a lot of nonprofits around the world,

and often, like, nonprofit leaders are doing great work,

but they don’t think a lot about, like--

How to maintain it in the long run? Yeah.

You could want to do all the good in the world,

but if you don’t have the means.

But I think you can generate them. I mean...

No, you’re right. I’m just saying, like...

-Do you know Elon Musk? -Yeah.

Tell him that we want on the island to make it--

Oh, personally, I don’t know him personally.

I know who he is, but I don’t know him personally, no.

-No. No. No. -We really need to get to him.

Tell him that this is the perfect island

to make it completely self-sustainable.

-I mean, this is perfect for that. -It’s too small for him.

-Imagine, he can... -[chuckling]

...completely redo the whole system here.

This is a little planet, you know?

Anything that works here will work for the rest of the world.

Really? Like if it works for 5,000 people

it’s gonna work for five million, five billion?

-Nadia: Can it scale? -Where I come from,

we come from Bangladesh, right?

I mean, the capital city has 15 million people.

Like, if you bring people from Bangladesh here,

if you show them that... they’re, like,

"I can’t really use it."

You see, the thing is you’re thinking it too...like...

maybe specific.

I know it might not seem comparable,

-but I think if you sit down... -Yeah, they are similar issues.

...and start finding the root, you know?

[violin continues playing]

[in Rapa Nui]

[whistling]

[in Spanish]

[engine rumbling]

[grunting]

[forklift beeping]

[sighs]

[revving]

Enrique:

[chuckling]

[chuckling]

[Mahani whispering]

Mahani:

[both giggling]

Sergio:

[exhaling]

[exhaling deeply]

Enrique:

Sergio:

[chanting]

[indigenous singing]

Sergio: gonna work [in English] During Tapati, we’re surrounded by tourists.

But it’s also one of the few times in the year

that we cheer for each other,

as we celebrate what remains of our past.

[cheering]

[clapping, wooing]

[ukulele strumming]

[Enrique humming]

Enrique: [in Spanish]

[Enrique sings in Rapa Nui]

[guitar strumming]

[chuckles]

[in Rapa Nui]

[in Spanish]

Sergio: [in English] I hope one day, you’ll participate in the parade.

It’s beautiful.

Everyone is painted in kie’a,

and the lines between us blur.

[in Spanish]

[blowing]

[in Rapa Nui]

[cheering, clapping]

[chanting in Rapa Nui]

[in Spanish]

Sergio Sr.: [in English] With all the shops open, I’m creating over 50 new jobs.

But this is my own Rapa Nui creation,

Rapa Nui expenses, Rapa Nui work.

So, you just have to think

the number of people working in these shops,

and also at the supermarket.

So, it is progress.

Sergio: When I was young, I never really understood

why my dad did what he did.

And sometimes I still don’t.

I know that he thinks a lot about our ancestors,

and what they were able to achieve...

...and in some ways, he might be striving to match that.

Now that I have you,

I’ve realized that what drives his choices,

is his love for his family,

for his people,

in wanting them to have a better life.

[man speaking in Spanish]

[in Spanish]

Sergio Sr.:

Sergio: [in English] What my dad talks about, you can still feel

when you’re in front of the moai.

Our ancestors, the Polynesians, carved the moai

to remember the great leaders who came before them.

They had few resources,

but they were able to achieve amazing things.

One of the biggest misconceptions,

is that our people died out

because we destroyed our environment.

The trees did disappear.

The good soil washed into the ocean,

and food could not easily grow.

But our people survived.

Elena: Where are we?

There’s a lot of documentaries

and photographers that come out here.

They use this as a visual example of the deforestation

on the island.

And the famous line is,

"What were the natives thinking

when they cut down the last tree?"

The funny thing is, is that just across the street,

there’s a bunch of manavai and also rock mulch gardens.

They learned new and different ways of planting

in this environment that no longer had any trees.

Wow.

Sonia: [in Spanish]

[chanting in Rapa Nui]

Enrique:

Piru:

Sergio Sr.: [in English] Let’s keep the mind open,

to the opportunities that exist all around.

So, the more we learn about the world,

the easier it becomes for us to cope.

Sergio: glish] Each of us has a place we call home,

and each of us has a responsibility to care for it.

As you grow up, you’ll need to pick up where we left off,

copy our victories,

learn from our mistakes,

reach beyond Rapa Nui to show our global community

how we can better care for the only home

we’ve ever known.

Our kaína, our planet.

Piru: [in Spanish]

[guitar strumming]

[Enrique singing in Rapa Nui]

[baby talk]

Tai!

Moai are not for eating!