Dschungelkind

Sabine Kuegler's autobiographical "Jungle Child" is one of the best books I've read in the last 10 years. In it, she recounts her life as the daughter of a couple of German missionaries, living as a child with his family (that includes her parents, a brother and a sister) deep in the jungle of Indonesia's Papua (the western part of the island of New Guinea) working with the Fayu, an isolated tribe, still living in the stone age and in a stage of constant warfare, that has just decided to come forward to meet the rest of the world. Her story is enthralling. And an even big of a culture clash, was when Sabine returned to Europe at 17 years of age.

Now we have a film version of the book. The movie was filmed in Malaysia, and I found it interesting though less compelling than the book. The movie, almost two and a half hours long, is relatively faithful but a bit sanitized (for instance, the fact that they were missionaries goes almost unmentioned). Kuegler is played by Stella Kunkat as a child and by Sina Tkotsch as a teenager. Of the actors in the movie, the best known is Thomas Kretschmann, who has appeared in many German movies and plays here Klaus Kuegler, Sabine's father. The color photography is a plus.

This was a wonderful movie. The actress who played the lead was fantastic, as were the mother, father older sister and little brother. I just watched this the other day,and I'm watching the whole movie again today because I loved it so much. What was the song the kids played on their recorders when they invited the chiefs for dinner?

I can't understand why the real Sabine went along with this,guess she needed the money. The book is quite excellent, and describes very well the life of Sabine,her siblings and their missionary family.As they live deep in the jungle,where her father is trying to learn the language and way of the fayu tribe.

For some reason I can't fathom, they have basically ditched most of the important stuff from the book,and focused a lot on the tribes war.Which was only a small part In the book.And don't be fooled,it's not a documentary,it's loosely based on real events They have basically taken away the whole part where all the kids learn to hunt and speak fauy.Suddenly they just speak fluent fauy They have also taken away a lot of the other kids stuff from the book.Which was strange,cause the book is written from a child's point of view. The acting is not bad,but they speed thing along in away that is unforgivable,if you read the book

The Fayu cannot die. Only a curse or an arrow ends a life.

The eight years old girl Sabine arrives at the Indonesian island of West-Papua, together with her parents and 2 siblings. A linguistic research mission brought her family to the jungle of the Fayu. It is the beginning of a great adventure and soon Sabine finds her new home. Far off the western civilization, she grows up as a child of the jungle, but the untouched wilderness holds dangers of its own. The close friendship between Sabine and Auri, a boy of an enemy tribe, almost puts her and her family between the two waring factions. The friendship prevails and turns into an intense bond over the years, until the 16 year old Sabine returns to Germany, a home as alien to her as the rainforest of the Fayu to us.

I read the original book "Dschungelkind" some years ago and was simply amazed. Despite simple language the perceptible clash of cultures described with so much feeling was astonishing. This film does not entirely reach up to the book, but still catches one's heart and depicts the life of Sabine Kuegler very believably.

Always keeping in mind this is an entirely true story with nothing made up, this biography makes one really think about how life could have been different and what perfect world means for yourself.

Overall I can strongly recommend this film although reading the book before watching this film is probably the better order since this is even more thought-provoking.