Berta's Veil
(El velo de Berta)

In the mountains of southern Chile, the ENDESA multinational company is building a gigantic dam to hold the waters of the Bio-Bio river which will flood the land where the Pehuenches Indians belonging to the Ralco Lepoy community have always lived. Although it has the support of the Chilean government, the company has been confronted from the beginning with the strong resistance of a group of old indigenous women. They have been fighting for years to avoid expropriation. In 2002, they were among the last families still living there. 88-year-old Berta Quintreman heads this resistance movement. She lives on her own on a small piece of land and follows her ethnic traditions. She communicates with the trees and the sun, drinks maté with the dead and prays.