Garapa follow the daily lives of three families living with food insecurity in Brazil. The title refers to the sugar water provided to the children when milk is not available (which seems to be often). The difficulty of daily life is plain to see, as families have to transport water from a nearby lake by donkey back to their simple homes, and speak of the challenges to find work and purchase even the most basic food items. The children, aside from being malnourished, lack clothing, education or really any stimulus, they appear to be simply existing.
This is an extremely intimate documentary, that doesn't flinch from the very harsh realities. There are no solutions here, and the film does not explore the broader social, economic, historical or political issues that no doubt underpin the situation. That is perhaps a weekness, but as a piece of pure ethnography, this hard to look away from. Beautifully shot in black and white, this is a film that is hard to forget.
