The film NIMUENDAJÚ begins in 1945, when the already well known Ethnologist Curt Nimuendajiu is found dead. Nino, his informant from the Tikuna tribe presents his version of the death to the local authorities, speaking of a killing that had occured.

His life repasses quickly through photographs he had taken of the people he studied between the decades of the 1910 through 1940ies. In the retrospective, we meet Curt Nimuendajú 13 years before his death, when he was living in Belem, Para State, married to his wife Lila.

In this period Curt Nimuendajú discovered new fields of study between the people of Timbira: the Canela and Apinaye. At the same time he treated to reveal the Ethnography and Life with these Indians, he also married the girls named Kentapi (Canela) and Ireti (from Apinaye). But at the same time he constatates what he has seen living with these tribes: „they literally dissolve themselves in Alcohol.“

He fights against the immanent extinct of the Apinaye and creates very precise maps of the Canela territories, highly respected by the brasilian government.

In this Interim he becomes visited by memories. His baptism by the Guarani who also gave him his name: „NIMUENDAJÚ – the one who found his place in the world.“, wich ocurred in 1906, when he lived with those tribes in the state of Sao Paulo. His first contact with the wild and dangerous Parintitim…

A dedicated  explorer, organized and recognized by the represantatives of international Academies, Curt Nimuendajú finds himself – now 60 years old – prohibited to travel back to the territories for medical reasons. In this period he produces his Ethno-Historical map of south America wich is still today considered the most important document produced on the subject, crowning a 40 year long study on indigenous people in Brazil and neighboring countries.                            

In the following he breaks off to start his last journey to the territory of the Tikuna, in the highland of Solimoes..