The Year Zero

Festivals:  ——  official selection IDFA International Competition 2001         —Special award of Assisi

ARTHOUSE  ( platina ) cinema distribution by LAVA FILM         TV-appearances :      ERT TV Greece 

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A film about a mysterious, unique gathering deep in the Amazon jungle of Colombia. Some 400 Native American medicine men and medicine women from tribes across the Americas perform ancient rituals for the healing of the Earth.

 

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–   Watch this movie on YouTube (only with english subtitles) 

Film director Wiek Lenssen was one of the few Westerners admitted to this meeting, and promised to do what he was asked … convey their message to the rest of the world in a film.

A unique film about two Mayan shamans: Wandering Wolf and Don Julian. Their extraordinary life stories are closely related to the hopes for the near future that the indigenous peoples of the Americas cherish for all of humanity.

The ancient calendar of the Mayan Indians from Central America predicts global changes around the year 2012; in the climate, in nature, but especially in the consciousness of humanity. According to many Indian myths and prophecies, we are on the eve of tremendous events, which, after an unprecedented turbulent time, will usher in a golden age of peace and harmony on Earth.

Medicine men, medicine women and tribal elders from North, Central and South American tribes respond en masse to the call of one of the film’s two main characters, the Mayan shaman Wandering Wolf. Somewhere deep in the Amazon jungle of Colombia, some 400 Native American delegates gather for a ritual preparation for the end of a more than five-thousand-year calendar cycle, and the beginning of a new one. For Wandering Wolf, the gathering marks the end of a lifetime of wandering through both Americas, past all the native american tribes.

The Mayans of Central America are the people from an ancient Native American prophecy:

“Those of the Centre must unite the Eagle of the North with the Condor of the South, so that they will be one like the five fingers of the hand.”

(Ancient prophecy of the Hopi Indians)

 

Wiek Lenssen: director & camera,  co-productie Jura Filmproducties, Editors: Oscar de Waard, Berenike Rozgonyi

 

In the film, two attendees are sought out and portrayed in their own countries after the gathering: seer and knower of Mayan prophecies Wandering Wolf, and healer-rainmaker Don Julian, two Mayans from Guatemala.Through both of their lives, we learn the background of the Great Gathering and of the prophecies, and what they have to mean for the world today, up to the year 2012…>

Distributed on DVD, by Wiek Lenssen Filmprodukties. Also available in German and English language version.

Festivals:

   ‘The Year Zero’ reached the finals of the international competition at the world’s most prestigious documentary film festival IDFA 2001  

  In 2003 the film received an award by the city of Assisi (Italy) at the international film festival of Trento/ Assisi, for the way the relationship between man, religion and nature was depicted. 

  Also it was selected for the Gouden Kalf competition at the Dutch Film Festival of 2002,

  Official selection Minneapolis International Film Festival USA in 2002 and

 Umea Internationaal Filmfestival in Zweden in 2002.

 

TV:

Broadcast in 2002 by the Greek national television ERT.

n 2002, Dutch public NPO-broadcaster devoted a 20-minute reportage on the premiere of The Year Zero, including footage of the main characters’ visit to the Netherlands at the time of the premiere. In 2011, parts of the film were included in a documentary series about the year 2012 and aired on