Deep in Peru’s Amazon region, the Marañón River is home to a vast network of spirit villages ruled by the Karuara, or “People of the River.” Through enchanting hand-painted animation that fills the frame with vibrant compositions, we are transported inside the river world, where spirits lounge in hammocks made of boa constrictors and smoke sardines wearing stingray hats and catfish shoes. Laughing children ride to school on giant turtles and play football with inflated blowfish. Behind their playfulness, however, the Karuara are also metaphysical ecologists maintaining the delicate balance of life in the waterways.
For centuries, the Kukama people have depended on their rivers for survival. But, in a world that continuously puts a price tag on nature and humanizes the corporations responsible for the cultural genocide that is taking place, a federation of women, led by Mariluz Canaquiri, decide to fight back and file a groundbreaking lawsuit demanding the river, too, be recognized as a legal person with rights.