TROPIC FEVER
A TRIP TO HELL: HOW ORELLANA
DISCOVERED THE AMAZON - 1541
DOCU-DRAMA
Francisco de Orellana was representing Gonzalo Pizarro, the youngest Pizarro brother when in 1541 he led the Spanish expedition army from its outpost in Guio over the Andes in a mission into the unknown, into terra incognita. The objective of the expedition was to discover the „Eldorado“, the land full of gold as the Incas said, and the „Cinammon land“ full of spices: somewhere on the other side of the Andes.
Some months laters, only the half are left of the 4,000 Spaniards and the Indio sherpas. Pizarro’s expedition gets stuck at the offset of the rain forest. No European had ever reached this point yet. All food is gone, going back is impossible and the greed for gold changes into the will to survive. Out of despair the Spaniards decides to build a caravel in Rio Coca, in the middle of the rain forest, in order to continue the journey on the river.
While Pizarro is in total fever delirium, the young, aristocratic and liberal Francisco de Orellana takes control and sets off with 61 other people to get help. But the vessel „Victoria“ will never make it back to base camp. It dips into an incredible journey over the Amazons. The priest of the caravel, Gaspar de Carvajal, writes in his diary about beheaded people and terrible, naked female warriors, the Amazons.
In 2003 the Dutch naturalist Dr. Marc van Roosmalen sails on the research boat Calibella over the Rio Aripuana, one of the endless tributaries of the Amazons. TIME magazine declared Roosmalen as one of the „Heroes of the planet“. The primatologist has discovered more than new animal species over the last twenty years - and that caused lots of trouble with the Brazilian authorities. Marc van Roosmalen is an offcial scientist of the prestigeous Research Institute IMPA. But police bullies him whenever possible because he is trying to buy large regions of the rain forest with European donations and transform them in protected areas. This is not a good way to make friends in one of the most corrupt countries in South America.
FACTS
Shot in original locations in Manaus, along Aripuana River, Vitoria, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
First aired 21st September 2003, 19:30 pm, ZDF
CREDITS:
TROPIC FEVER
A TRIP TO HELL: HOW ORELLANA
DISCOVERED THE AMAZON
DOCU-DRAMA
Written, directed, produced by
Petra Höfer
Freddie Röckenhaus
With
Pedro Rohr as Francisco de Orellana
Fernando Monteiro as Pizarro
Romulo Musiello as Padre Carvajal
Roberto Barcelos Ferrante as de Vargas
Marcelo Oliveira da Silva as Indians Chief
Fernanda Cipriano as Chief of the Amazons
and many more
DOP
Johannes Imdahl, Thomas Schäfer
Aerial Camera
Peter Thompson
Assistant Camera
Marcus Holzner - von Kleist
Editing
Jörg Wegner
Senior Producers:
Claus Ruegner
Leo Wery
Gideon Boulting, Red Earth Images
Head of Productions
Svenja Mandel
Location Manager
Paulo Indio
Producers Brazil
Ivano Cordeiro, Francesca D‘Amicis
Narration
Benjamin Völz
Sound Mix
Andreas Beverungen
Graphic Effects
Constanze Fries
Editor at ZDF
Alexander Hesse
Hans Hellmut Hillrichs
A colourFIELD production, commissioned by ZDF
8 ноя 2018
