In Deborah Colker’s “Cão Sem Plumas” (“Dog Without Feathers”), the ingredients are film, mud, poetry and dance. Pretty much in that order of importance.

Ms. Colker’s point of departure is João Cabral de Melo Neto’s 1950 poem of the same name, which is inspired by the Capibaribe River in northeastern Brazil and the social disparity in that region. For this 70-minute production Ms. Colker, a Brazilian choreographer, filmed her dancers at the river; they perform in real time in the foreground.

But the overall scene is dark — as in difficult to see. As this meandering work progresses, it does feel like a journey, if a ponderous one, told in eight sections, with scenery that makes it seem as though you’re traveling in a loop.

In Ms. Colker’s piece, which began a run at the Joyce Theater on Tuesday night — it won the Benois de la Danse Award 2018 at Moscow for choreography — the film overwhelms the dance, even when its performers, 14 in all, fill the stage in acrobatic, low-to-the-ground choreography. Their bodies, crouching and pliable, blend into the film like camouflage; all the while, the stage glows with the faintest tinge of amber. A candle or two would help.