SPOILERS:
First, how can you show the plane crash and escape of the sole survivor in a feature film? I was curious to see if there would be no dialog and just shots of her attempts to survive captured on film (think Castaway, Tom Hanks) or if there would be internal dialog, or flashbacks, or if the character talks to herself (think Die Hard).
The first few minutes of the movie shows what life might have been like in Lima Peru on Christmas in the 70's. A very charming city in summer, and a few glimpses into the culture and the past. You get to see the very cultured Europeans in the new world, and making do with busy airline traffic and sold out flights. In fact the very reason they take the doomed air craft, despite warnings to the contrary, is because their original flight became overbooked.
On the flight over at LANZA, there is a sense of all not being well. Everyone has been upset about some recent crashes. The shots over the cramped, doomed plane are not sappy but show people laughing and looking forward to meeting friends and family at their terminal. Two girls laugh. A mother smooths her son's hair. The sophisticated mother of Juliane reads and even informs Juliane not to eat, as lunch will be waiting for her at her destination. Only the viewers know none will survive.
There is a brief shot of the plane's problem, namely, a terrible storm and probably fire coming off of one of the engines. Juliane sees fire along the seam of the wing and plane and then the plane seems to break away. Juliane falls to the ground strapped to her seat and you see nothing else.
It is interesting to note that the events happen in Lima, Peru, the characters are German ex-pats living as biologists in the rain forest, and the director is an Italian. It is not an American movie and may seem styled a little differently than our American dramas. Even as the young Juliane awakens, you get the feel that she has a sense of hope and optimism. She has courage and smarts and although she is young and afraid and alone, you feel she can do it. I know I would have been in a huge panic, cried and lost hope had I called out after a plane crash and no one had answered.
The rest of the film cuts back to her life before, talks with her father helping her understand the rain forest, and with rescue efforts on land and by air. Mixed with that are the sense that there is nothing anyone can do, because of terrible storms lasting as many as 5-6 days. You see the lost families waiting at the airport trying to keep up their hopes and eventual attending funerals, all family members lost on Christmas Eve.
Juliane's struggle is unique because she is so alone and in such a strange place. Her body is not without injury. She begins her journey looking for a mere trickle of water leading her to her escape because of her father's words as a biologist: follow a stream to the river and to a bigger river and then to the ocean. Mixed with some slightly 1970's psychedelic lighting effects and some flashbacks of beautiful misty Macchu Pichu with friends and her graduation party, you see Juliane usually horizontal, hugging trees and rocks and lying on river banks, bruised and battered and covered with hungry bugs. Sometimes she is looking out at the birds and wildlife her own parents study. There is pouring rain. There is rocky footing, no place for your feet and she is clothed in one sandal and a sleeveless minidress. She knows that she will become infested and takes care of wigglers under her skin. She also has some hard candy but never eats along the journey.
Just as she is about to lose faith and wishes to die she sees a boat and rescuers and they know her father. They care for her, feed her, though she can barely swallow, and transport her to a hospital.
During her journey, you will see several attempts by an Adventist Missionary and Pilot to find her and inspire hope in her father, who has been keeping their gifts under the Tannenbaum since before their loss. You hear several stories about faith and hope conflicting with the grim reports that the flight rescue must be called off due to weather and delays over time.
It is important to note that all characters except for Juliane and her Mother (and the passengers on the plane) are not actors. They play themselves. Even the missionary nurse at the end of the film is not an actor--she is herself.
It appears that the director has made other films about psychedelia (a film about Acid) and native tribes (Cannibals Tomorrow, a documentary about the future of primitive peoples in modern times).
Anyone who says this movie is "bad" is not running this film through the filter that it's a foreign film from the 1970's and probably wouldn't be happy with the film's extremely narrow focus to show the events as best as they might be experienced.
I would have given it 10 stars if it would have added some fact to the story regarding where the wreckage was because it was only suggested as to the plane breaking up in the air. or some explanation of why she found just the two lost passengers and the one bit of wreckage.
First, how can you show the plane crash and escape of the sole survivor in a feature film? I was curious to see if there would be no dialog and just shots of her attempts to survive captured on film (think Castaway, Tom Hanks) or if there would be internal dialog, or flashbacks, or if the character talks to herself (think Die Hard).
The first few minutes of the movie shows what life might have been like in Lima Peru on Christmas in the 70's. A very charming city in summer, and a few glimpses into the culture and the past. You get to see the very cultured Europeans in the new world, and making do with busy airline traffic and sold out flights. In fact the very reason they take the doomed air craft, despite warnings to the contrary, is because their original flight became overbooked.
On the flight over at LANZA, there is a sense of all not being well. Everyone has been upset about some recent crashes. The shots over the cramped, doomed plane are not sappy but show people laughing and looking forward to meeting friends and family at their terminal. Two girls laugh. A mother smooths her son's hair. The sophisticated mother of Juliane reads and even informs Juliane not to eat, as lunch will be waiting for her at her destination. Only the viewers know none will survive.
There is a brief shot of the plane's problem, namely, a terrible storm and probably fire coming off of one of the engines. Juliane sees fire along the seam of the wing and plane and then the plane seems to break away. Juliane falls to the ground strapped to her seat and you see nothing else.
It is interesting to note that the events happen in Lima, Peru, the characters are German ex-pats living as biologists in the rain forest, and the director is an Italian. It is not an American movie and may seem styled a little differently than our American dramas. Even as the young Juliane awakens, you get the feel that she has a sense of hope and optimism. She has courage and smarts and although she is young and afraid and alone, you feel she can do it. I know I would have been in a huge panic, cried and lost hope had I called out after a plane crash and no one had answered.
The rest of the film cuts back to her life before, talks with her father helping her understand the rain forest, and with rescue efforts on land and by air. Mixed with that are the sense that there is nothing anyone can do, because of terrible storms lasting as many as 5-6 days. You see the lost families waiting at the airport trying to keep up their hopes and eventual attending funerals, all family members lost on Christmas Eve.
Juliane's struggle is unique because she is so alone and in such a strange place. Her body is not without injury. She begins her journey looking for a mere trickle of water leading her to her escape because of her father's words as a biologist: follow a stream to the river and to a bigger river and then to the ocean. Mixed with some slightly 1970's psychedelic lighting effects and some flashbacks of beautiful misty Macchu Pichu with friends and her graduation party, you see Juliane usually horizontal, hugging trees and rocks and lying on river banks, bruised and battered and covered with hungry bugs. Sometimes she is looking out at the birds and wildlife her own parents study. There is pouring rain. There is rocky footing, no place for your feet and she is clothed in one sandal and a sleeveless minidress. She knows that she will become infested and takes care of wigglers under her skin. She also has some hard candy but never eats along the journey.
Just as she is about to lose faith and wishes to die she sees a boat and rescuers and they know her father. They care for her, feed her, though she can barely swallow, and transport her to a hospital.
During her journey, you will see several attempts by an Adventist Missionary and Pilot to find her and inspire hope in her father, who has been keeping their gifts under the Tannenbaum since before their loss. You hear several stories about faith and hope conflicting with the grim reports that the flight rescue must be called off due to weather and delays over time.
It is important to note that all characters except for Juliane and her Mother (and the passengers on the plane) are not actors. They play themselves. Even the missionary nurse at the end of the film is not an actor--she is herself.
It appears that the director has made other films about psychedelia (a film about Acid) and native tribes (Cannibals Tomorrow, a documentary about the future of primitive peoples in modern times).
Anyone who says this movie is "bad" is not running this film through the filter that it's a foreign film from the 1970's and probably wouldn't be happy with the film's extremely narrow focus to show the events as best as they might be experienced.
I would have given it 10 stars if it would have added some fact to the story regarding where the wreckage was because it was only suggested as to the plane breaking up in the air. or some explanation of why she found just the two lost passengers and the one bit of wreckage.