Returning to the Amazon 40 years after his first encounter with the Yanomami people, the 82-year-old Italian documentary filmmaker Mario Gianni faces the challenges of a long journey to fulfill a promise made to the community leaders: to return and screen his film in the village. On the journey that stretches from Rome to the village, passing through Manaus, Rio Negro, and São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Mario reflects on two journeys: the internal one, which explores his memories and transformations, and the external one, which reveals the changes in the landscapes and lives he encounters, all altered by time. THE RETURN is a meta-film that follows Mario on his journey between past and present, observing the impacts of globalization and highlighting that the preservation of the Amazonian biome and life on the planet is intimately linked to the peoples who have inhabited the region for thousands of years.

Mario Gianni, Yanomami Indigenous people from the communities of Maturacá, Ariabú and Maiá, José Ivanildo de Melo