THE SOUND OF TIINK reflects on our relationship with nature, both within and around us, in the world’s most biodiverse landscape – that of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The film revolves around Tiink: a humble indigenous Shuar village situated right on the edge between ever-progressing western civilization, indigenous culture, and overwhelming nature – and is defined by the frictions in between. Situated in the province of Morona-Santiago in southern Ecuador, Tiink makes up a central meeting point for the Shuar people, who go by with their lives amidst the turbulent clash between the new and the old world.
This year (2018), the nation’s largest open-pit copper mine is being constructed in the middle of the rainforest surrounding Tiink, on holy Shuar land. The building project threatens the natural life around it and stirs up the continuous, deeply rooted conflicts between indigenous people and the industrial progress. Now the only connection between Tiink and the outside, modern world is blocked at both ends: a narrow, worn suspension bridge forming a treacherous path across the roaring Amazon river.

THE SOUND OF TIINK is a sensory, creative documentary portraying life in this inaccessible jungle world; raw, ruthless, and picturesque as it is. Our film is an exploration of the emotional consequences of the universal conflicts between different peoples, and simultaneously between people and nature.
In the film we experience the life of the Shuar and meet the community, among others Pakun Alfonso – a man who has lost everything and become a refugee in his own country during a military operation to clear the land for the new mining construction. Yanua, a mother of six struggling to keep her family together in an ever more unpredictable world. And deeper into the forest, Domingo – one of about 70 indigenous people living in hiding from the government on the base of false accusations in connection with a local demonstration against the new mine.
The fate of everyone we meet in the film is connected to the underlying mining conflict in one way or another.