Overview

• Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, and Juan Camilo Cruz, the feature follows four Indigenous siblings who survived 40 days in the Colombian rainforest after a 2023 plane crash that killed their mother and the pilot.
• The filmmakers secured the children’s life-rights, conducted on-camera interviews with family and welfare authorization, provided psychological support during filming, and set up a trust to compensate the siblings.
• Interviews extend beyond the children to include Indigenous community members, Colombian special forces involved in the search, President Gustavo Petro, and relatives, broadening the record of what happened.
• Reporting in the documentary shows Indigenous trackers and Colombian military units initially searching separately before coordinating efforts to locate the children.
• Storytelling combines first-hand testimony with archival news material, carefully restaged sequences using real participants, and minimalist animation to convey the children’s perspective.