An immersive initiation into the life of a Maroon community in the former Dutch colony of Suriname. Combining stories of African ancestral traditions and escaped slavery with enacted contemporary rituals, the film explores how the community’s powerful ties to the land have become endangered as industries threaten to devastate the region through deforestation and mining.

Stones Have Laws

For centuries, the Maroons in Suriname's rainforest have kept capitalist society at bay. Descendants of enslaved Africans who escaped Dutch plantations, they have thrived by preserving their ancestral traditions. In recent years, however, economic interests have encroached upon their land. Monikondee (Money Land) follows Boogie, a boatman who delivers essential cargo to remote Maroon and Indigenous communities along the border river separating Suriname and French Guiana. While the communities continue to grow their own food, they are becoming increasingly dependent on boatmen like Boogie to bring in vital supplies, as floods and droughts destroy their crops and gold mining poisons their water. When Boogie is summoned by his clan leaders to attend his nephew's trial, the demands of his money-driven work begin to conflict with his traditional duties. During a winding journey deep upstream, the currents become increasingly unpredictable.