Defenders of Life

In the hills of Costa Rica, Doña Carmen struggles to pass on her tribe's traditional ways of life. She must soon marry off her only granddaughter, and 70-year-old shaman Don Claudio lays his claim to the girl, who is only 12 and already impregnated by him. When the girl befriends the young son of a visiting anthropologist, it forces a collision between the modern world and the ancient one.

5.0 / 5

INCLUVIE SCORE

4.3 / 5

MOVIE SCORE

Representation

Native American

Women

Semoy Booker

November 29, 2022

5 / 5

INCLUVIE SCORE

4 / 5

MOVIE SCORE

Director / Writer Dana Ziyasheva Talks About 'Defenders of Life'

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dana Ziyasheva (who is now a part of our Incluvie team!), who wrote and directed her featured film, Defenders of Life (2015). Ziyasheva was born in Kazakhstan, and went on to become a journalist and a UNESCO diplomat, where she spent 20 years working for the United Nations. As a UNESCO diplomat, she worked with indigenous tribes in Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Mexico. This was when she decided to make a career in filmmaking after she encountered the Ngäbe community in Costa Rica, and that’s how Defenders of Life was born. Interesting fact: FNX (First Nations Experience TV), the first and only national broadcast television network in the United States exclusively devoted to Native American and World Indigenous content, purchased the rights to broadcast Defenders of Life and was the first U.S. network to premiere the film in North America. Defenders of Life is about the Ngäbe community leader Doña Carmen, conflicted by her tribe’s traditional ways after her 12-year-old granddaughter is impregnated by their 70-year neighbor, who plans to marry her. While the film is based on the Ngäbe people in Costa Rica, the film can relate to the obstacles Native Americans face in present-day America. It is a perfect film for Native American Heritage Month. In this interview, Dana Ziyasheva gives us insights into the making of Defenders of Life, and the hardships Ngäbe girls endured in Costa Rica. Editor's Note: This article might be triggering, for it contains topics of child rape and child brides.

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