PARASISI
Directed by Zaidi Bil & Sébastien Segers
2026 - Run time: 1hr 1min.
Parasisi opens with a sobering fact: every year, gold mining releases between 50,000 and 80,000 kilograms of mercury into the environment. In Suriname, children are growing up with that poison quietly accumulating in their bodies.
Premiering at Hot Docs in the International Spectrum Competition, the documentary shows a hidden world of Indigenous people in the rainforest.
Who owns or belongs on this land and has the rights of it's use? For the Indigenous Wayana people — now only about 2,000 strong — parasisi means outsider, intruder. Through that word, the film looks at the effects of illegal gold mining that poisons rivers, religious missions that impose foreign beliefs, and medical systems that quietly hide the reasons for their illnesses.
Shot in black and white — though I couldn’t help wishing for color, given how lush the rainforest landscapes are — the film moves with a quiet, slow pace. On the surface, everything appears serene, but beneath that stillness lies a slow‑building unease. The camera lingers on the subtle ways mercury seeps into the land and water, revealing how environmental exploitation becomes normal in daily life.
As the land and its rivers are polluted once again, Indigenous communities are left to bear the cost of corporate greed — with little control, little protection, and few rights over their own futures.
Suriname is often called “the world’s greenest country,” with 90% of its territory covered by Amazon rainforest and home to many Indigenous communities.
Parasisi is a stark reminder of the loss of the people's rights over their environments.
