# The Territory (2022 film)

The Territory is a 2022 internationally co-produced documentary film directed by Alex Pritz. It follows a young Indigenous leader of the Uru-eu-wau-wau people fighting back against farmers, colonizers and settlers who encroach on a protected area of the Amazon Rainforest. Filmed on location in Brazil from 2018 to 2020, the film utilizes almost exclusively on-the-ground, primary source material, including footage produced directly by the Uru-eu-wau-wau. Darren Aronofsky serves as a producer under his Protozoa Pictures banner.
The film had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2022. It was released in select cities in the United States and Canada on August 19, 2022, by National Geographic Documentary Films and Picturehouse. It was shortlisted for the 95th Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature category, and won Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking at the 75th Emmy Awards. The film received critical acclaim for its cinematography and for the authentic portrayal of rising tensions between Indigenous peoples and settlers in contemporary Brazil.

## Synopsis

The film focuses on the Uru-eu-wau-wau, an Amazonian tribe only contacted by the Brazilian government in 1980. Originally numbering in the thousands, the tribe is presented as just 200 strong at the film's outset. Bitaté Uru-eu-wau-wau is introduced as an 18-year-old who, despite his youth, is selected as leader of Uru-eu-wau-wau in order to coordinate their protection in the face of encroaching settlers who deploy slash-and-burn tactics to establish frontier settlements. Neidinha Bandeira, an environmental and human rights activist, is the other central cast member, working tirelessly to protect Uru-eu-wau-wau land and present their story to journalists and politicians. White seizure of Indigenous land is presented as a quasi-legal movement, tacitly encouraged after the election of reactionary populist Jair Bolsonaro.
The film interweaves vérité footage of settlers themselves who, though chauvinistic, also have genuine faith in their entitlement to Amazonian land. The threat of violence hangs over the film's action. Bandeira faces near-constant death threats and the tribe deals frankly with the threat of elimination. The murder of Ari Uru-eu-wau-wau, a 33-year-old tribal leader beloved by the Uru-eu-wau-wau, is presented around the film's mid-point; the primary coordinator of tribal patrols, Ari is found murdered on a roadside with his death unsolved at the film's conclusion. The Uru-eu-wau-wau are also hit hard by COVID-19, losing 5% of their already tiny numbers.
The film's last act presents Bitaté taking up Ari's patrol leadership, teaching drone and film technology to tribe members in order to document settler intrusion and monitor territory boundaries. The tribe implements a de facto police apparatus, arresting individual settlers and destroying their out-buildings and implements. Bandeira continues her steadfast advocacy and organizing despite being deeply shaken by Ari's murder. The tribe's position is presented as resolute but extremely precarious at the film's end, with a concluding crawl noting that the Amazon clearance, the invasion of indigenous land and the appropriation of resources continues to accelerate under the Bolsonaro administration.

## Release and reception

The film had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2022. Shortly after, National Geographic Documentary Films acquired distribution rights to the film. It was released in the United States on August 19, 2022. The Territory received positive reviews from film critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 97% approval rating based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Visually striking, formally refreshing, and ultimately enraging, The Territory is a powerful advocacy documentary with the heart of a thriller." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 83 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Critics acknowledge that The Territory is an advocacy film rather than a strictly disinterested documentary. The New York Times notes in its review that Indigenous people and settlers "are given near-equal amounts of screen time" but that "Pritz does not draw a false equivalency between the two; in fact, the longer time is spent with the farmers, the more alarming their gap of understanding toward the Uru Eu Wau Wau becomes." The sense of intimacy created by immediate, personal portraits of conflicting perspectives is praised across reviews, heightened by striking visuals and sound design. The LA Times calls the film a "a gripping portrait of an endangered community." A more critical review at RogerEbert.com acknowledges the cinematography but suggests that the hero-villain narrative risks simplicity and becomes monotous.

### Accolades

| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
| Cinema Eye Honors | January 12, 2023 | Outstanding Non-Fiction Feature | Alex Pritz, Darren Aronofsky, Gabriel Uchida, Sigrid Dyekjær, Lizzie Gillett, and Will N. Miller | Nominated | [14] [15] |
| Cinema Eye Honors | January 12, 2023 | Outstanding Production | Alex Pritz, Darren Aronofsky, Gabriel Uchida, Sigrid Dyekjær, Lizzie Gillett, and Will N. Miller | Nominated | [14] [15] |
| Cinema Eye Honors | January 12, 2023 | Outstanding Cinematography | Alex Pritz and Tangãi Uru-eu-wau-wau | Nominated | [14] [15] |
| Cinema Eye Honors | January 12, 2023 | Outstanding Original Score | Katya Mihailova | Nominated | [14] [15] |
| Cinema Eye Honors | January 12, 2023 | Outstanding Sound Design | Rune Klausen and Peter Albrechtsen | Nominated | [14] [15] |
| Cinema Eye Honors | January 12, 2023 | Outstanding Debut | Alex Pritz | Won | [14] [15] |
| Cinema Eye Honors | January 12, 2023 | Audience Choice Prize | The Territory | Nominated | [14] [15] |
| Cinema Eye Honors | January 12, 2023 | The Unforgettables | Bitaté Uru-eu-wau-wau and Neidinha Bandeira | Won | [14] [15] |
| Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival | March 23 – April 3, 2022 | F:act Award – Special Mention | The Territory | Won | |
| Critics' Choice Documentary Awards | November 13, 2022 | Best First Documentary Feature | Alex Pritz | Nominated | [17] [18] |
| Critics' Choice Documentary Awards | November 13, 2022 | Best Science/Nature Documentary | The Territory | Nominated | [17] [18] |
| Critics' Choice Documentary Awards | November 13, 2022 | Best Cinematography | Alex Pritz and Tangãi Uru-eu-wau-wau | Nominated | [17] [18] |
| Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards | December 15, 2022 | Best Documentary | The Territory | 9th place | [19] [20] |
| Golden Reel Awards | February 26, 2023 | Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Feature Documentary | Rune Klausen, Peter Albrechtsen, Mikkel Nielsen, Tim Nielsen, Sebastian Vaskio, Guilherme Tortolo Magrin, Pietu Korhonen, and Heikki Kossi | Nominated | |
| Golden Trailer Awards | June 29, 2023 | Best Documentary TV Spot (for a Feature Film) | The Territory (ZEALOT) | Nominated | |
| Golden Trailer Awards | June 29, 2023 | Best Original Score TV Spot (for a Feature Film) | The Territory (ZEALOT) | Nominated | |
| Gotham Awards | November 28, 2022 | Best Documentary | The Territory | Nominated | |
| International Wildlife Film Festival | April 23–30, 2022 | Best of Festival Award | The Territory | Won | [24] [25] |
| International Wildlife Film Festival | April 23–30, 2022 | Best Sustainable Planet Category | The Territory | Won | [24] [25] |
| Mountainfilm | May 30, 2022 | Moving Mountains Award | The Territory | Won | |
| Peabody Awards | June 11, 2023 | Documentary | The Territory | Won | |
| Primetime Emmy Awards | January 7–8, 2024 | Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking | Alex Pritz, Darren Aronofsky, Sigrid Dyekjær, Will N. Miller, Gabriel Uchida, Lizzie Gillett, and Txai Suruí | Won | |
| Primetime Emmy Awards | January 7–8, 2024 | Outstanding Directing For A Documentary/Nonfiction Program | Alex Pritz | Nominated | |
| Primetime Emmy Awards | January 7–8, 2024 | Outstanding Cinematography For A Nonfiction Program | Alex Pritz and Tangãi Uru-eu-wau-wa | Nominated | |
| Producers Guild of America Awards | February 25, 2023 | Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures | Sigrid Dyekjaer, Will Miller, Lizzie Gillett, Darren Aronofsky, Gabriel Uchida, and Alex Pritz | Nominated | [29] [30] |
| Provincetown International Film Festival | June 15–19, 2022 | John Schlesinger Documentary Award | Alex Pritz | Won | [31] [32] |
| Satellite Awards | March 3, 2023 | Best Motion Picture – Documentary | The Territory | Nominated | [33] [34] [35] |
| Seattle International Film Festival | April 24, 2022 | Golden Space Needle Award – Best Documentary | The Territory | Won | |
| Sheffield DocFest | June 23–28, 2022 | Tim Hetherington Award – Special Mention | The Territory | Won | |
| Sundance Film Festival | January 20–30, 2022 | World Cinema Documentary – Audience Award | The Territory | Won | [38] [39] |
| Sundance Film Festival | January 20–30, 2022 | World Cinema Documentary – Special Jury Award for Documentary Craft | The Territory | Won | [38] [39] |
| Zurich Film Festival | October 1, 2022 | Science Film Award | The Territory | Won | |