Hölle am Amazonas (1990)

Hölle am Amazonas: Directed by Mika Kaurismäki. With Kari Väänänen, Robert Davi, Rae Dawn Chong, Minna Sovio. Widowed and broke Finnish businessman Kari takes his two teenage daughters with him to Brazil. A bush pilot introduces him to the idea of gold mining in the jungle, but a beautiful and educated local woman warns him about the possible consequences to the rain forest. Kari has mixed feelings about the project, until an accident puts him in the care of a local Indian tribe.

“Contrary to the only other u0026#39;reviewu0026#39; of this film, Amazon is a fairly interesting and serious attempt to blend the adventure and art genres.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDirector Mika Kaurismaki has clearly learned a lot from the Werner Herzog playbook, as there are many echoes of both Fitzcarraldo (with the Caterpillar filling in for the riverboat) and Aguirre. Amazon manages to make a decent case for rain forest preservation without bashing us over the head with that thesis. The filmu0026#39;s major weakness is,predictably, its star turn by the acting-challenged Rae Dawn Chong, who fills in needlessly as the love interest. Otherwise this is a leisurely-paced but intriguing look at the greed driving the (presumably still ongoing) deforestation of this ecological landmark.”