Ayahuasca is a brew which has been used for more than 3000 years by the shamans and medicine men of the indigenous population in the Amazon to make contact with their ancestors, to look into the future, and to cure diseases.

Ayahuasca provokes strong hallucinations, and often causes nausea and vomiting.

In Brasil Ayahuasca is used during the rituals of the Santo Daime church. This religion combines christian faith wiht shamanic knowledge.

Ayahuasca means "Wine of the Souls". Its origin is unknown.

Every years groups of foreigners make a pilgrimage to the roots of their religion in the heart of the Amazon - the remote village Céu do Juruá, a three day boat trip plus five hour trekking through the jungel away from Cruzeiro do Sul. Here  they participate in the preparation of the mystic brew, the daily life of the comunity and many Santo Saime rituals.

The film "The Wine of the Souls" accompanies six  Gringos on their search for healing, enlightenment, sense and purpose.

They come from very different backgrounds, and 
they are coming for very different reasons, too.

Gal had  just quit the isrealian army, and he wants to forget the traumas of this time. After travelling all South America as a typcial backpacker, experiencing  lots of sex&drugs&samba, he made 180 degree u-turn in his life after taking Daime for the first time.

Antonio Oxteik is an self proclaimed Maya-Priest from Mexico, and he is receiving instructions from the "Great Creator" to heal mankind as a whole, when he is drinking Daime.

Gwyn is a physician from the United States,
She has only one leg, and she is hoping to cure a cancer in her eye.

Jane is leading the clandestine Santo Daime Church in a small town in Oregon. She suffered severe opression in the U.S.A., and she is suffering delightfully in the jungle - from heat, middle age-hygienic conditions, and hundreds of bug-bites.

Dineke from Holland is a Juruá-Veteran. The retired teacher is the one, who most integrates in the life of Juruá.

Hendrik, also dutch, with 57 years the oldest and the intelectual of the group, has experienced all kinds
of psychedelic drugs and is looking out now for the "psychological dynamite", which the Amazon jungle provides.

During the film, these protagonists are talking, often  with astonishing frankness,   about their expectations, about their hopes and anxieties, and their experiences during the three weeks of this spiritual journey.

At the end of the film, some of the protagonists appear again in the anual European Santo Daime-meeting in Amsterdam.

The doctrine from the brazilian jungle, founded in 1930 by a slaves grandson, is getting international.

 

Produced, directed and photographed by
Michael Ende
Edited by
Luis Eduardo Pomar

2007

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