Independant Film Review: The Enemy God

I wrote about the trailer to “The Enemy God” here: (posted a Christian Film: The Enemy God (Trailer)) a short while back when I just received the DVD in the post. There you can find all the links and the Synopsis, as well as the actual trailer.
Here is the Synopsis in any case:
From IMDB

Shake is a powerful shaman of the Yanomami people. He wields his power to heal and to protect his people against their enemies in this world and beyond. Tracing his life and the life of his community over 40 years of their history, Shake tells how he and his people grapple with new ideas that come from the outside world and the challenging decisions they make in order to maintain their identity and survive as a people. Written by Christopher Bessette

A surprising Start

The film does not hold back much in terms of violence and some culturally different practices that we may find difficult to understand. From the word go I was thrown into the cold hearted violence that the Amazonian tribe. I have to say that I kind of found myself a bit shocked at what happened in that first tribal raid. It was what they had done all along – as their ancestors did and as the spirits has told them. As the story of Shake becoming a Shaman unfolds I began to understand that the violence was an integral part of the story – it was the antagonist (so to speak). Besides that; it add more authenticity to the story – holding it back would have been unrealistic.

Back and forth in time
My only criticism was that I did get a bit confused when the Film started switching to different times in Shake’s life. For a short while I found myself wondering how long the film was, sorry. However the parallel that was drawn between the recent events and the earlier was actually a great story telling technique in the end. The earlier events being Shake’s life as he became a Shaman till he put that aside when he found God, as well as what the different tribes went through and the violence they suffered. The recent events being Shake’s involvement in how the tribes of the future still feuded and how one of the woman was caught int the middle. Now that I think of it; a lot of the trouble was because of the tribes’ issues over women – past and present.

Life Change
What was great for me was that the story was about life change, how that change affected the future that Shake was influential in and how it included him finding God. This was a story that showed, illustrated, the life change – it did not just tell it.

Final Thoughts

• The film is definitely worth watching whether you are Christian or not.
• It is a great look into the Culture of the Yanomamö tribe from the Amazon.
• From an independent filmmaking point of view it is great to see such a well put together film despite the lake of huge budgets.
• Although story is the most important part of film; it would have been so much better if real film was used (I don’t know – maybe I am still a fan of the Film look for it’s richer and deeper color, even though I will only ever be a digital video wrangler).