“A dead hummingbird appears in Yuriana’s garden, a girl with communication difficulties who lives in the Peruvian Amazon. That day, her world changes, and she must face all her fears to finally find her voice.”
This is the synopsis of Yuriana’s Garden, a fictional short film shot with minimal resources and immense enthusiasm by Luis Solarat and Natalia Mejía, two passionate lovers of the Amazon rainforest who wanted to return all they have received from the forest and its inhabitants through this beautiful story.
The filming of Yuriana’s Garden took place over six months in Madre de Dios, a region of the Peruvian jungle, with non-professional actors, in a dreamlike setting: a wooden house on the banks of the Tambopata River, deep in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon.
A Crowdfunding Campaign to Complete the Project
“This project is our offering, our way of saying thank you to all that the jungle and its inhabitants have given us,” Luis Solarat tells me via Zoom from his home in the Sacred Valley. Born in Galicia, Luis became an adoptive son of the Amazon years ago.
To complete Yuriana’s Garden, Natalia and Luis have launched a crowdfunding campaign, which has already raised one-third of the 9,700 euros they need. The funds will go towards financing the soundtrack, special effects, and the distribution of the film:
Filming in Madre de Dios
“Natalia and I lived for three years in the Iquitos area, in an Amazonian healing center, but we barely knew anyone in Madre de Dios, a very different part of the Peruvian jungle,” Luis recalls.
The couple’s adventure to find the location and the actors (especially Yuriana, the lead girl) is documented in four videos that cover the making of the project. Here are the first two published so far:
The characters in Yuriana’s Garden are “caboclos” (as they are called in Brazil) or “criollos” (in the rest of the continent): mestizo people, a mix of Indigenous and colonial heritage, who have learned to live amidst the complexity and ever-changing nature of the Amazon jungle. This reality is far from the idealized vision many Westerners have of the Amazon.
“Neither Natalia nor I are Indigenous, and our film clearly does not reflect an Indigenous perspective. We tend to idealize a stereotype of the Indigenous living in harmony with Nature, but what we actually found were these mestizo Amazonian women, who, when you’re feeling unwell, prepare you a flower bath or a tea made from plants in their garden. These are the true teachers!” exclaims Luis.
Luis Solarat: From The Matrix to the Jungle, Guided by Ayahuasca
Luis’ videos are known for their impeccable technical quality, and that’s no coincidence—he’s a professional in the audiovisual industry. I first learned his story a couple of years ago, when we began shooting the first episode of Voices of Ayahuasca. Through one of his videos, I came to know the story of this young Galician who emigrated to London in search of a professional dream, only to feel trapped in the “Matrix” of modern life.
To learn more about his fascinating journey—from his Galician village to the Amazon, passing through “professional success” in London—listen to his own words in Psychedelic Pandemic Dissolution.
Please, support the crowdfunding campaign for ‘Yuriana’s Garden’:
Follow Luis Solarat on his YouTube channel, Dissolution, and on Instagram.
Luis Solarat interviews Alonso del Río: “Our civilization is the perfect example of how we can gain so much knowledge and so little awareness.”