Trailer

JAGUAR AND RAIN - A trip on the Rio Negro

Amazonia, 1903. German explorer Theodor Koch-Grünberg travels from Manaus up the Rio Negro, a formidable river and biggest tributary of the Amazon, to its headwaters on the equator. He enters an Indio region as large as Germany, a world of water and forest called Dog's Head. For three years he lives among the natives, seeks out encounters, passionately writes down myths and legends and takes photographs.

Ninety years later the same journey. Five Indios return from Manaus to their villages in the immense forest. They travel for four weeks, by ship, motorboat and canoe. Days are spent under the equatorial sun and nights under the Southern Cross.

The start of the 20th century with Koch-Grünberg and its end with the true masters of this land. What did Koch-Grünberg see and with what mentality did he see it? What do we see today and how do we see it? 'Jaguar and Rain' takes a journey into innermost Amazonia, switching from past to present. It plunges into a foreign world, combines stories and fates, creation myths and the tropics of today. In the Amazonian cosmos the jaguar speaks with the rain.

Credits

Dokumentary, Germany 1994, 82 Minutes

Cast. Marlene Mendes, Pedro Garcia, Francisco Fontes, Sabino Dias, Firmino Gonçalves, Humberto Gonçalves, Dalva Leão, Edoardo Lagorio, Geraldo Pinheiro
Written and directed by: Herbert Brödl
Photography: Volker Tittel
Editor: Margot Neubert
Sound: Andreas Mücke
Production Manager: Ivo Rodrigues
Commissioning Editor: Reinhard Wulf
Produced by: Baumhaus Film Brödl

Festivals
1994 Lübeck, Wels
1995 Hessischer Filmpreis, Freiburg

With the support of WDR, BR, ORF, HR