Director Statement

Ndaan Mpmaduk could be defined as a “fundamental deviation” within a journey aimed at researching indigenous Taiwanese cultures that began many years ago. Initially, in fact, I focused mainly on aspects concerning the feminine nature of indigenous culture, believing that it was mostly responsible for its symbolic legacy. It all started personally when I began to explore the wild areas of the mountain, and interact with its visitors, mostly men.

I began to become interested in that world, its rites, its rhythms and those languages that the human being establishes with nature in which the perception of reality unequivocally comes to terms with the senses, discovering that this concerned me personally much more than I could imagine. They were my grandparents, my hunter ancestors with whom I spoke during the production of this film and there was in this methodology a sense of “ancestor’s cult”, a “prehistoric will” which has been the essential element since the initial writing for its aesthetic elaboration. The aspect that I consider most precious about the making of this documentary is an unusual “state of exaltation” in which I found myself, both during filming and during the post‐ production part. While in the former this was evoked by the direct action, from contact with the sacred of blood and death, in the latter it emerged from the compositional reworking of the filmed material. Both were aroused by the same primordial nature. I can without a doubt say that this film gave me the experience of reality or rather what I consider divine in reality and this is why Ndaan Mpmaduk is my greatest work to date. During its creation I felt truly alive and this is personally the greatest reward for the extreme efforts it costed me.