Listen to the River! ‘Arrow for a Stone Heart’ Is a Poetic Hybrid Experience Told Through an Indigenous Lens

Luiza Calagian’s debut feature, *Arrow for a Stone Heart*, explores the Guaraní community’s experience of urban expansion near São Paulo through a blend of documentary and fiction. By telling the story through Guaraní perspectives, dreams and relationships with the natural world, the film brings attention to the community’s struggle and asks how cinema might help people understand it.

The film centres on Jera Rete, who co-wrote it with Calagian and appears alongside her daughters; one plays the river and the other voices Rete, a peccary who narrates the effects of colonisation. Calagian says the project developed over seven years, as she sought to shape the film around Guaraní cosmology rather than a Western account. It was due to premiere in the Rebels with a Cause Competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.