Pulque Films

Yuli (38) is the Topila (auxiliary police) of San Pablo Begu', a mountain community in Oaxaca where the inhabitants assume the responsibilities of self-government on a rotating basis on an honorary basis (Comunalidad) at the same time as they carry out their work and personal activities. At the entrance to the town, they hold back a group of machinery that is trying to move into the community to begin construction of a four-lane highway. No one in authority is aware of this and the community is on alert. San Pablo Begú will have to decide whether or not to accept the road project.

The legend of an ancient tree that gave birth to Yosonuviko, the cloud people, reenters the collective memory through the ancient language of rain, Sa’an Savi, evoking the fragility of the human condition amid nature’s immensity. A metaphor for life over time that reminds us of the importance of coexistence with nature.

From the communal future, a woman recalls the words of her ancestors, women warriors who gathered to record their words about community service. At the same time she questions her own future: Will we ever stop fighting? Does anyone care what we say?

We are Nivi Savi, rain people, Mixtecos; a people that disperses like the clouds and every year returns to earth to continue to flourish the memory of their ancestors.