“The Rubber Soldiers: the forgotten army” - is a feature length documentary film, which will expose the journey of over fifty-five thousand Brazilian civilians who were recruited by the United States and Brazilian governments during World War II, and were sent into the Amazon jungle to extract latex. After the Japanese took over the US supply of rubber from the Malayan plantations in 1941, Brazil as an ally, made an Accord with the US and put together a desperate operation in order to get the so necessary rubber for the multitude of applications during the war.
This film is the true story of the Rubber Soldiers, in their own words; their being displaced into a hostile environment, battling countless hardships from predators and diseases to unimaginable working conditions and their subsequent abandonment by the governments that they helped to win the war. This story is told by filmmaker Eva Neide, the daughter of a surviving rubber soldier. It's comprised of over 150 hours of footage she personally shot (in the jungle) and her own experiences growing up with the stories of her father.
This film will pay tribute to these forgotten heroes, whose important contribution must not be ignored or forgotten.
Furthermore, this film wants to motivate immediate change for the remaining aged rubber soldiers survivors, who have been waiting for 65 years for their pension as veterans of war, but it has never came for them.