The Last

“I have a melancholic infatuation with forests.

Not until long ago, Paraguay was still a little-known green patch on the world map. In the late seventies and early eighties, the country had around 70% of its forests intact, and the capital, Asunción, was a city covered in large old trees, surrounded by lush woodlands.
Growing up in this context, I developed a connection with the natural world that fed my early imagination and sensibility. But when I started becoming aware that human societies seem to have a hostile attitude towards them, I began to experience a strange form of nostalgia. Today, Paraguay has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world.

One day, I met Ulf and Jota, two Voltairean characters who have spent their lives studying nature and, since the late eighties, have witnessed the disappearance of the Paraguayan jungle. These two could well be in a bizarre punk band. They seem to know about everything, and one could listen to them for hours. At times controversially biologistic and bitter, but mostly just ironic and certainly funny. Their smart and comical skepticism is a survival strategy.

For the following 15 years, we embarked on what felt like a long, circular journey through the remaining forests of Paraguay. At some point, I became a filmmaker, and I felt the need to tell their story as a way of addressing my own obsession with the loss of these forests.”

– Sebastián Peña Escobar, Director