Nunkui
Verenice Benítez (Ecuadorian) • 1h 30m • 2026 • Ecuador • Spanish & Shuar
Nunkui lives in a Shuar community with her grandparents, aunts, and cousins , and dreams of the feminine spirit of the garden, also named Nunkui . While her great-aunt teaches her magical chants and secrets for cultivation, the vast Amazon rainforest where they live is handed over to mining companies, and evictions begin in the area. Premonitory dreams, the figure of her grandfather—a Shuar leader who fights to defend the territory—and the complexity of a lush world of plants, animals, and spirits mark her entry into adolescence and her understanding of her place in the world.
Director Biography: Verenice Benítez
Verenice Benítez is an Ecuadorian director, screenwriter, and musician. Her work articulates film, sound design, and territory, engaging with Indigenous memories and environmental activism. Nunkui is her debut feature film. In 2014, she co-founded the community film studio Etsa Nantu / Cámara Shuar with Domingo Ankuash, a renowned Amazonian leader, with whom she has produced six short films that have been screened internationally. She is currently developing the feature film Osa del Chocó and the series Luisa Cacao , and leads the musical project VereTambora.