In ‘Rejeito,’ Brazilian filmmaker Pedro de Filippis melds together on-site, direct activism, an urgent cause and the cinematic reflection on the subject, this latter element usually arriving only later. Following a state councilor waging a frontal battle against official corruption, the film blossoms into a tonic and moving portrait of a community bent on resisting, defending its dignity and, above all, staying alive. The stakes are huge: faced with the chaotic economic development of a region at the mercy of a multinational mining company, these people are struggling less to keep their own homes from the prospects of unjustified expropriation – but to save millions of Brazilians from a dam that is growing weaker and threatens to collapse and destroy everything in its path. Nor would it be the first time: it has happened before. Given its political preoccupation, de Filippis’ film urges a better grounding in the reality and history of one's own community. Clearly opposed to the anti-social turn of the rapacious capitalist model, Rejeito takes the form of a testimony to the need for action and solidarity. (Victor Morozov)