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The following comment and
synopsis are from the Unifrance Site where you can
see a short clip of the film. This also where the picture opposite came from. Comment
Beyond its historic context, this film is above all the true story of a
friendship, the real-life encounter of two worlds. Motivated by the same cause, the love
of people and nature, Humboldt and Bonpland, set off to discover the New World and meet
Pedro, the school teacher. These men from different worlds, separated by the oceans and
their culture, come into contact. They have something in common, beyond the things that
they have learnt. They discover each other on the basis of their love of Humanity. The
beautiful thing is this common initiation. And the wonderful thing was that the very same
thing occurred on the set between the members of a Franco-Venezuelan crew who discovered
one another in completing the film. (Morelba Pacheco, producer)
Synopsis
Alexandre Von Humboldt is devoting his twilight years to writing about his
discoveries when he learns of the death of Aimé Bonpland. The two naturalists haven't
seen each other for more than fifty years, since the French doctor's return to South
America to complete his collections but above all to study the Indians, half-breeds and
peons, among whom he has just passed away. As he looks back on some of the most remarkable
incidents of his journey to Venezuela with Bonpland, Humboldt relives the moments that
they spent together: their youth, their enthusiasm, their thirst for new scientific and
human knowledge and, above all, their amazing quest to find the Casiquaire river, linking
the Orinoco to the Amazon...
See also this synopsis
from the
1996 Puerto Rican International Film Festival. |
