Chaparri, the Seven Bears of the Sacred Mountain

In the dry forest of northwestern Peru, at the foot of the Andes, in a poor and arid region, stands Mount Chaparri. Overcoming its ancestral fear of the mountain spirits, a peasant community of 500 families has decided to take its destiny in hand. After decades of intensive deforestation and mining, the community declared itself an "ecological community", transforming its former hunting grounds into a reserve where threatened species, such as the Andean bear, are protected and reintroduced. Through their enthusiasm and tenacity, and thanks to a providential meeting with a native wildlife photographer who wanted to do something useful for nature, the "comuneros" obtained the support of American and European scientists and managed to stand up to the big mining companies that still covet their lands. Today, the lowlands are devoted to organic agriculture, while the highlands are home to the reserve, whose revenues allow the comuneros to improve their living conditions and mainly finance the development of schools and health services in the hamlets. Convinced that the preservation of the environment is the only viable future for the region... and for the world, they multiply meetings with other communities, sometimes during adventurous bear rescues, even in the Amazonian Andes, to incite them to follow their example, with the aim of creating a large biological corridor, entirely managed by the local populations. The film follows the incredible epic of these farmers, determined to leave a better world to their children, while appeasing the spirits of Mount Chaparri...