In northern Brazil, the Purus River in the Amazon. Jecey, 14 years old and Lisette, 11 years old. This rodeo with the passenger boats is not a game, they work. They are not alone, other children cling
to Jecey's canoe to moor to the ship. Make sure, make sure! Climb forward! Less than a meter below them, the ferry's propeller. Push her ! Push to the side, pass the rope through there! The
eddies are too strong, the canoe will capsize. I'm not going to let myself go. All these efforts to sell preserves and fruit to passengers for a few reals, the Brazilian currency. - How small are your hearts of palm?
- 75 euro cents. They are good ? Do you buy them or do you make them yourself? I buy them further up the river. They are not damaged? No, there are preservatives and sulfates. The rio **** is unique. Only here can you find these small sellers in the middle of the jungle, in the heart of the Amazon delta. At this place, the river is very narrow,
the boats pass closer to the shores, This is why the boatmen manage to approach them. A dozen canoes clung to the Bom Jesus. The captain did not slow his pace,
he has a schedule to keep. - Hearts of palm?
- Give me a drink, please. 75 euro cents. With a boat of this size, you risk your life by rubbing against it. They are huge boats. They pass very quickly. But that's how we earn our daily bread.
We earn our living. Jecey and his friends are regulars on these boats which
make them live. They were adopted by the crew. Feed me, please. On the Bom Jesus, each time, we keep a plate for them. Go ahead, eat. There are accidents sometimes, you know. So we give them a hand. It's dangerous, we take great care of them. Among the thirty children who boarded, there
has toddlers. This worries Captain Santos. I keep a register and write down all the names of the children. I've been seeing more and more of it for quite some time. This concerns me a great deal, especially because there are so many of them. Toddlers of six years old and unaccompanied. I report to the authorities. At night, it's really too dangerous. I them
I told everyone not to approach in the evening. The day again, it's fine, I don't mind. But at night... According to the Brazilian river code, the
captain is responsible in case of accident. Be careful take the rope in the middle. Attach, attach! Come on, are you ready? Go ahead, coward! It's very dangerous at the back, it's the worst. We
feels nervous. I have cold sweats every time. I am a man's son. I have the good
age to work alone. I lost a heart of palm jar, I sold three. Jecey cannot read or write, but
he knows how to count his profits. 2.50€. The money Jecey earns on the boats is used to make
to live with his family. He is the youngest of twelve children. It is his mother, Bénédicta, 57, who wakes him up every morning. Jecey was born and raised in this house on stilts. His universe is this river. He never went anywhere else. My husband is too old to work. Sometimes we wake up and we have nothing to eat. Whole days without eating. We wait for the next day. That's how life is here. Some days we eat, some days we don't. The family is large. Twelve adults and sixteen children
who all learned to swim before walking. Jecey's grandfather, a Portuguese settler moved to the forest at the turn of the century during the rubber boom. His father experienced the boom in the lumber industry. In the Amazon, everything goes through the river. Like this freighter from New Zealand
look for his cargo of tree trunks. A constant coming and going of men and goods. These barges are public transport. For the
inhabitants of the Amazon, the train, the bus, all at once. But the most dangerous boats to approach, this
are the ferries that carry passengers. 1500 tons launched at 30 kilometers per hour. Jecey knows the best place, at the front, sheltered from the eddies. Behind, the last canoe is in
difficulty. It fills with water. The father rows and the child bails desperately
but the canoe is sinking. They both jump into the water. The important thing for them, to recover the goods. It's my son's fault. He didn't listen
he didn't bail fast enough so we sank. I haven't been doing this job for long. Barely two months. Before, I worked in the timber industry in the jungle. I earn between 7 and 11€ per day but sometimes nothing. You earn more money with the canoe? Yes, here at least I see the color of money more than
in the woods anyway, it's a big loss for me. I just lost all the money I had. 7 euros. - Have you eaten today?
- Nope. We ate nothing. And the money I had to make
the races, he fell into the water. Manuel, Fernandez, his son and the rest of his family will have to wait for the ferry the next day to earn some money, And do their shopping. On the boat, Jecey continues to do business. Go ahead, give me a dozen. 60 cents. I have banana, ****, fruit
passion and hearts of palm. Passengers are aware of the risks he takes, but some have no qualms about trying to haggle. There are only six bananas? No, it's good, there's the count, there are eight. Give me more. No, it's good like that! It is very dangerous what they are doing. Me, I won't. If they fall, they can die. They
can be sucked into the boat. It's their job, to sell their products, they approach the boats that make the round trip to Belém. It's their life, it's the business of the river. The river trade, Jecey practices it seven
days out of seven since the age of ten. At fourteen, he has only spent one month of his life in school.
By canoe, it takes him more than an hour to get there. Here, there are not enough canoes. The parents told me that they lacked canoes. That's why the children don't come to school. But other children don't come because they work. They must cling to the boat to feed themselves and to clothe themselves. So they don't come to class. School, you should go there every day. If it's to go there a day or two a week,
it's not worth it, it's better to stop. You should know that studies are very important. They will open doors and new horizons for you. You're already the best at hanging on to the ship, so
imagine if you could read and write, you would be the king. Me, I'm really ashamed. At my age, I don't know
read or write. I don't even know how to write my first name. Jecey's school is the river and the jungle. And his best teacher is his big brother Toninio, 26 years old. My father taught me to make
cartridges and I teach Jecey. I never wanted to live in the city.
We only go there when we need to. I had job offers in town,
but I always refused. Here, we are free, we do what we want when we want. We have a quiet life. The most important,
is to learn to manage. For me, it's important to learn how to do
lots of things like my brother. Building a boat, working wood, Clearing the forest, working what! Jecey's family always refused
to settle in town, here, on the river, They live only from trade with boats and from hunting. Well aimed, he had it in the head! It's a poisonous snake. It's called the comboy. When you pass, he bites you. This is the type of snake that attacks people. It can kill a good Christian. When he attacks, it's death! He's over there, look, I'll go get him. On the ferry, a sloth like this
sells for 30 reals, a popular dish in the region. But this one is too young, he will live. In the city, I have already seen many children from
my age smoking drugs or snorting glue. They spend their days waiting for the opportunity to fly. The police sometimes arrest them. Me no. I have a father and a mother. God keeps me away from the wrong path, that of theft. On the boats that Jecey sees pass
every day in front of his house, We meet many adventurers who come
seek fortune in the heart of the Amazon. Like this old man, his name is Ulysses and
tells his journey to whoever wants to hear it, A story of treasure lost deep in the jungle. One day I heard that on
the Rio ****, there was a gold mine. A real Eldorado. It's a Rio in the middle of the Amazon. There is nothing there. I've heard so much about this place, Which I decided to take a closer look. The Eldorado of which Ulysses speaks made the headlines. Its discovery led to the greatest gold rush, What has Brazil experienced in the past 20 years? To achieve this, thousands of miners have
borrowed these boats that sink into the jungle, A dangerous adventure. There, I fell ill, I have a stomach ache and
I have a fever, I think it's malaria. That's why I gave up.
It's over, I'm going home. To follow the trail of the gold diggers, you have to leave the
river **** and go up the Amazon towards the heart of the country. Support, 20000 inhabitants, a few streets
paved in the middle of nowhere. Three months ago, no one in Brazil had heard of it. But 80 kilometers away, in the jungle,
a lucky few have discovered gold. Since then, nearly 10,000 miners have been
passed through here to reach El Dorado. These two have just arrived.
The small one is called Amerigo and the Grand Uzès. They are farm workers, they left women
and children and traveled more than 2000 kilometres. The hope is to find gold. Yes, find gold, we will become rich! We left our families behind
us to become gold diggers. But if we do that, it's to feed our children. Gold fever pushed Amerigo and Uzès to
sell all their furniture to pay for their trip. They left their family only a television and a bag of rice. After ten days on the road, their
economies are already almost dry, And you still have to pay for a 4x4 to cover the
80 kilometers that separate them from the gold mine. If we can find gold fast enough,
we'll go home instead. If not, well, we'll keep trying 'cause
that the little we had, we put into the trip. And we left our families without any resources. I have no preparation nor any
tool for working in a gold mine. I just have my courage. It's not much, but that's what I have! Looking for gold is a real adventure, we don't
don't know if we'll get there. It's dangerous ! We play with luck, we risk our lives! At the end of the track, a few tents along a
Rio lost. But the journey is not over yet, This arm of water that sinks into the jungle,
it's the rio Juma, the one that leads to Eldorado. And there too, you have to pay to continue. Ticket price for
the dream, 40 reals, almost €15 for 2 hours in the boat. We are afraid because in the gold mines,
many misfortunes can befall us. Our families must be very worried
because we can't give them any news. They have no idea what can happen
go through the mine and neither do we. After 20 kilometres, a few tarpaulins
color appear through the trees. This is the Eldorado that has made thousands of adventurers dream. At first glance, the place looks like a slum. Makeshift shacks, garbage bags as roofs. Today, they would be three or
four thousand to live here, in the middle of the jungle. A small boomtown with its bistros, its
small shops, her hairdresser and even her dentist. Here, you can even follow the football championship thanks to
to generators that run constantly. Death bingo is about to begin! Win a 50 cubic centimeter motorcycle. Buy your grid now
bingo, underage friends! The minimum bet is one gram per grid
because here we pay in yellow powder. Everything is done so that the miners' gold does not
doesn't last long in their pocket. Amerigo and Uzès are a bit lost in this rush
which does not really look like what he imagined. There is even a large grocery store where you can find everything, provided you pay the price. Everything is twice as expensive as in town. Mercedes, the boss, was the only one to
dare to settle here, so she takes advantage of it. Tins, thermoses,
drinks I sell a lot. Sweets work well too. Coffee, soups, noodles. I even sell radios! I have been a trader for a long time,
it's in my blood! I love selling things! But here, it is by buying gold that we
most easily makes a profit. And that's how Mercedes makes the most money, almost doing nothing. She buys gold from miners in cash, almost €14 per gram. But it's sequins, she's going to resell them for 10% more in town. Amerigo and Uzès can't believe it. What we say about
the Eldorado would therefore be true. Wealth within everyone's reach. Gold, they too, they want it
to find. And there is no time to waste. Direction the main deposit. It is three kilometers away
at the end of this path which plunges into the jungle. The entire forest has become a building site. Everywhere,
improvised huts and wells dug in the mud. At the end of the road, this battlefield was three years ago
month yet, a stream flowing through the jungle. 12 hours a day, hundreds of men turn the soil over with shovels. Other miners wash the earth without
release to extract some glitter. Blinded by gold fever, some are still sinking
deeper, without worrying about the risk of rockslides. I've been digging for six days. Six days of work! So far we haven't found much gold,
but we hope there will be plenty. We are almost certain of this because we
has already found some glitter. For Uzès and Amerigo, the dream begins to
take on the appearance of a prison. My first impression is that there is
many people who suffer here. A bad feeling that will very quickly be confirmed.
Everywhere, they are given the same answer, There are no more jobs for newcomers. I already regret having come. Here, there is almost nothing. We managed to find this job
but how much do they give us? Two grams of gold a day. It's not enough to live on. I still have hope and above all faith. If God gives us health, we will get there. Return to camp. In the middle of the jungle,
it is better to be rich if one wants to survive. 7 reals for the plate instead of 3 reals in town,
it is the last meal they can afford. In the restaurants, a DVD plays in a loop, that of the
report that spread gold fever throughout Brazil. A television crew
visited for the first time, On the scene of a new
and spectacular gold rush, In the heart
of the Amazon rainforest. Gold ! Raw gold... Gold that springs from the new Eldorado,
in the middle of the jungle. Like Amerigo and Uzès, it is by seeing these
images of shoveled nuggets, That everyone here has been through the
country, hypnotized by the mirage of El Dorado. They did false advertising.
And I think it's a crime! A crime ! There's a guy here who told me he sold
his property and left his family to come here, Thinking he was going to find plenty of gold. And you? You just arrived ? Yes, we are coming right now. We really need to find a job because
that there, we have no more money to eat. Months, I've been here for a fortnight.
I looked for work, I found nothing. There is no more room to work.
Nobody gives you a job. Nobody ! We don't even have enough money to turn around. So now we have to fight
to find something to go back to. Finding something to leave here, Maria, she
also, only has this ambition. She survives by roaming the jungle for
sell bottles of alcohol to minors. Come on, buy my bottles. Do you want them or don't you want them? Come on, help me my brother, I'm dead tired! Don't have money to buy? It only took a few days for Maria to
realize that the gold mine was a trap. My wedding ring, I pawned it 25€ for
pay for my boat trip here. 25€! And now I'm killing myself at work to get that money back, get my ring back, and get a ticket home. Like thousands of others, it was by seeing the report on
the gold mine that Maria thought she could make a fortune. She now thinks that only television
can undo the illusion she has created, A river of gold within everyone's reach. Everyone in Brazil thinks there is gold
here, when in fact there are hardly any. I haven't seen a single gram of it since my arrival, not a single one! And yet, here, there are some who are doing well. To find them, you have to climb to the very top of the deposit. The miners nicknamed this place,
the Grota Rica, the rich vein. This land yields the most gold. Here, twelve owners monopolize the production. They have formed an all-powerful cooperative that no one dares to challenge. A real clan that employs
dozens of miners for two grams a day. Lucciana is one of these twelve owners. She has left
her three children in town in the care of a nanny. Upon mine, Lucciana became a respected patroness. We dug the mountain on this portion. And we removed all the earth that was here, And we put it there. And that's where the gold is. Here is the next step. We turn the earth, we mix it well
to make a smooth paste, It's important because then we're going to wash it
with water to dissolve it. It happens in this machine, it's called a funnel. The gold remains concentrated here in this sieve and there also on this mat. Because it is heavier than earth is than water. With this system, the workers who work for
Lucciana never see a gram of gold dust. Because it's under the sieve, sheltered from
looks, let the sequins fall. The only way to collect them is
stop the machine and dismantle it. A privilege reserved for owners. Impossible to know how much Lucciana earns exactly. I cannot give you an exact sum of this
that I win, you understand? It's unpredictable! One day it might be 10 grams, another 20 or 30 or 40. Lucciana said too much. another owner
discreetly called him to order. Neighbor ! They are French. They wanna know, but you can't
not tell everything you want! This is what to tell them. You tell them that there is
not much gold here, That we get by just enough to eat
and hope for a better life. How much do you collect
grams per day? - In gross profit?
- Yes, crude. I don't know, I haven't
yet did the exact math. Say 1 gram a day, tell them that's what you touch. Luciana admits a yield of 10 to 40 grams per day.
His neighbor owns an almost identical plot, But when you ask him the question, this is what he answers. On average... Half a gram. 0.5. Half a gram? No, yes, yes. Finally 0.5 grams per day what. - Here the gold is picked up by the shovel!
- Don't say that, don't say that! Yes, yes, there are places here! Don't say that, he's recording! Here, in truth, we are all poor. We
just trying to earn our daily bread. We all have a family with children and a wife. Law of silence obliges, the owner will say no more. But it is clear that on Eldorado, there are those
who win and the vast majority who only dream. And for those who manage to find some
grams, the night is a formidable temptation. In the bars of the camp, alcohol flows freely.
The fortunes of a day come undone in a few hours. At this makeshift casino table,
you play your pay with a roll of the dice. Obviously, in the end, the bank wins. There are even a few girls for those who can afford it. In this court of miracles, a name returns without
cease, Zecca Peta, Joe the devil. A dreaded name. Joe the devil here in the blue shirt is the godfather.
He claims to be the sole owner of the entire mine. Do not be fooled by its banal appearance. All minors must pay him an 8% tax. A law he knew how to enforce. Those who know the law of mine, they know
that the percentage of the owner is sacred. But unfortunately, at the beginning, there were also people who came to look for gold and they gave me problems. Today everyone pays without protest and Joe
the Devil displays his success without any complex. So far I've hit four
kilos of gold on the farm. But if everything we say is true,
I should have touched a lot more than that. It makes me angry the things that are said in
the press, let it be said that I touched so much gold, That's really nonsense. Ok, it's true, I'm not
not to complain because the percentage that I touched, Allowed me to buy a small house for my family. And that, I couldn't have done before. It's true. The four kilos of gold that Joe the Devil wants
confess. This still represents €60,000. For Amerigo and Uzès, this sum is simply inconceivable. They spent their last banknote,
they did not find a job, So they ended up at the bottom of the shantytown, by the river. If we had the money we would have left already. But anyway, we have more. Yes, it's a nightmare! What we dreamed of, what we hoped for, turned into a rout. Yes, we were already suffering now we are going to suffer even more! Amerigo and Uzès are not about to return home. Like hundreds of others forgotten
Eldorado, it will probably take them weeks, To manage to earn something to escape from the jungle. Back to the Rio ****, the river where the little boatmen live. A few kilometers from Jecey's house,
beggars appeared. Most are children, many barely five years old. They're too young to board the boats, so
they shout to attract the attention of passengers. It is for these children who are there. Looked
how small they are in this canoe. It's for those little canoes there, it's clothes. Do you throw food at them too? Not just clothes. Sometimes we
throws food, sometimes clothes. Me, I always prepare bags to throw to the children. A little further, the small river vendors are still numerous to face the ferries for a few reals. Give me a bag of shrimp. A dozen canoes clung to the ferry. But curiously, Jecey is missing. Yet, usually, he never misses the opportunity
to approach a boat to sell its fruits. Something is happening on the river, the atmosphere has changed. The ferries are still approached by the boatmen,
but the crews of the barges of goods, them, Have become very aggressive. These children
will experience it bitterly. On this barge, they don't seem welcome. No question of hoping to sell something. Worse still, at
taste of the crew, they don't come off fast enough. Knife in hand, another man
rushes to cut the rope. Coward! Did you see how he cut the rope for us? He was afraid of us the guy up there! It happens very often. They don't want to let us hang on. It's dangerous, but we do it anyway. We are not afraid of them! All the crap they tell us. We answer them! Me, it makes me want to give them strokes of the oars. They're afraid of thieves, they think we're going to attack the barge. It happened that they take out revolvers
to impress us, but we, We show them our machetes and then they no longer have the same courage. We tell them to shoot, but they are afraid of us. If the tension has gone up a notch, it's because for some
months, pirates appeared on the river. Their specialty is the attack on armed robberies. The pirates use the same canoes
than children and strike in the middle of the night. So, on the barges, it's psychosis. In the evening, no one has the right to approach. Absolutely nobody. Because at night, on the river, there is a lot of danger. There have already been many attacks. So now,
one is obliged to be wary of the small canoes. On this river at this place it is already
come. I have friends who got robbed, There are even people who have been killed in these attacks. Our only protection is God.
We are afraid, but we have to work. On the banks of the Rio ****, Jecey's family is in mourning. The small boatman was shot down by a
skipper, a few weeks ago. Jecey had become a pirate. He was killed trying to attack a barge like this, guns drawn. Zé Claudio, one of Jecey's older brothers, also took part in the attack. He couldn't do anything to save his brother. He was hooking up the canoe and
when he was done, he got on the barge. And there's a guy up there who shot him. I thought he was joking when he said to me:. "Brother, they got me!" I replied: "But you're crazy!" He replied: "No, it's true." The bullet had gone up and down in the throat. But since he had his hand like that, his fingers hid the wound. He started running and he jumped into the water. And
when he came to the surface, The guy saw him and he shot him in the back. All of Jecey's family knew he had become a pirate. Bénédicta, her mother, always felt that things would end badly. God warned us it had to happen
in our family, it was a prophecy. And I trust the word of God.
That's why I resigned myself. Thank God, I am resigned today. Sometimes from my door, I watch the
passing barges and I pray. I ask Jesus to protect the
children clinging to boats. May God prevent what happened
to my son happens to them too. Jecey's death is on everyone's mind. When he passes near the cemetery, on the banks of the river, the little boatmen have got into the habit of stopping at his grave. Mizaël, thirteen years old, was Jecey's favorite nephew, it was he who took over with his brother Simiel and his cousin Claudio, Twelve years, both. He was nice to us. As soon as he had a little money, he helped us.
It was he who taught me to hang on to the boat. I went with him in the canoe and he showed me
how to hang along the hull. And like that, I learned little by little. To me too, he taught me to hold on. He bought me things, he gave me clothes. He was my favorite uncle. But despite the drama, the trade of the river must continue.
Because for the children of Rio, there is no other choice. The most profitable on the ferries is the sale
of Inga, fruits of the jungle which one finds only here, And which passengers love. Mizaël, Claudio and Simiel know where the
find, but gathering is perilous. You have to go get the Inga at the
treetops, more than 30 meters. One real for four, barely 15 euro cents. That sells very well on the boats, people really like it. We don't pay anything for that. We just have to go up and pick it up. It is God who left them in the world
to be picked and eaten, For animals and monkeys to eat them too. The ferry that comes from Manaus is on time. You have to act quickly because the boat is fast. Every minute that passes takes the children a little further from home. You are strong, you! It's better than what you buy at the supermarket. It's much better! At least those are natural. In half an hour, the children have
not even collected the equivalent of 3€. 7 reals. No 8! My brother too, he has
picked up a little in his pocket. The ferry traveled about fifteen
kilometers to avoid having to row home, Mizaël watches for the passage of a barge in the opposite direction. On this one, the children know the crew,
they can cling without risk. A free taxi that saves them 4 hours of rowing. We killed an armadillo! This tattoo is a very good surprise. This makes
more than a year since Mizaël had not met one. I think he weighs almost ten kilos. We gonna boil it and all that
black part, the shell goes away. We put it in the pan and when it's ready, we'll eat it. For the children, it's a party because here,
meat is a real luxury. This hunt makes them laugh! They managed to kill an armadillo without a gun! There's more than enough for the whole family. And yet, we are eleven here. There's a lot to eat with an animal like that. We'll give some to the cousins
and we will still have some afterwards. Tomorrow there will be meat for everyone. Excited by their hunt, the children
don't feel like going to bed. My dream for my children, that they can one day
get out of this life, no longer cling to the barges. 'Cause they spend all day on the
river and I worry too much about them. I hope that one day they will manage to get out of this life. I don't want to become a pirate. I do not have
want to attack the barges, it's useless. When I grow up, I would like to work in a wood company. We really get the money at the end of each month. We see the color of the banknotes and like that we keep a cool head. Me, when I have a family, I want to be a football player. Score goals like Zidane! I will be the best and that way I can help my parents. I also want to work when
I will grow up, work on a boat. I will be commander. And I will get married.
