The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden

"The Galapagos Affair" is a very strange but enjoyable documentary. However, it has a huge strike against it--what exactly happened on the tiny island of Floreana really isn't clear--even all these decades later.

The film begins in the late 1920s. A couple of weird people abandon their spouses and run off to the Galapagos Islands. Their goal is to completely abandon society, to they move to the uninhabited island of Floreana and are, briefly, all alone. Oddly, however, a short time later another family moves to the island. Since Friederich and Dora came to the place to be alone, they aren't exactly thrilled to have new neighbors. Amazingly, a short time later, a wacky baroness arrives with her lovers and she announces she's going to turn the island into a resort for the rich and famous. Now it was easy to dislike Friederich and Dora (they really were selfish and nasty folks), you couldn't help but assume the film will climax with the pair killing off their new neighbors in order to stay all alone. Well, this is NOT what happens. But what does happen really is wide open to conjecture. The baroness and one of her lovers MIGHT have been murdered but there really isn't any concrete evidence that this is the case. Because of this, the mystery isn't necessarily very satisfying and the film, while quirky, isn't exactly satisfying to watch. Strange, yes, however.

This is a technically well made film--featuring a lot of film clips, photos and interviews. But it also is one that leaves you scratching your head. You THINK some murders occurred...but then again, they might not have. So, because of this, your overall enjoyment of the piece is certainly far from certain.

The story itself is fascinating, utterly fascinating and probably one of the most insightful looks into "civilized" human nature I have ever seen captured on film. The documentary is confusing though. The story is about three groups on Floreana but the film introduces all these other families, and it's impossible to keep track of the connections to each other. I couldn't figure out if they lived on Florena or another island. I still don't know. They were introduced as if they are a part of the story when they weren't. They were just offering opinions. Anyways it's an imperfect documentary that actually leaves out some interesting details I went on to read on my own after the doc but my rating is in terms of entertainment value overall.

This was a delightful combination of a true life murder story and a portrait of a place vitally important in the history of science. A German couple flees human society and the hints of another approaching world war in the thirties. He is a World War I Veteran and a retired doctor. She is an M.S. sufferer who idolizes the former doctor and aspiring Nietzchean philosopher. Both have left their respective spouses to come and live a Robinson Crusoe existence on one of the smaller of the Galápagos Islands. They are soon joined by another family and a woman travelling with two lovers who wants to build a hotel on the island. By the end of the period covered by the documentary the doctor and the hotel developer and both of her lovers are dead. Since the survivors wrote their memoirs and there was ample film footage of the Dramatis Personae, there is almost too much information. Yet at the end of the movie, we don't really know who killed who. We hear the words of each person, ably read by Cate Blanchett and other clear voiced German-accented people. We learn what became of the survivors and their children--who stayed and who went off on their own adventures. And during all this time, we see the animals of the Galapagos climbing over the rocks, gently eating from people's hands, less savage than the humans.

A documentary telling the story of some early European settlers and the strange disappearance and deaths of some of them. It is told using actual footage, photographs and writings from some of those involved and some of the surviving ancestors.

I found this to be a fascinating and absorbing film about interesting real life characters trying to find their own bit of paradise in a beautiful but ultimately hostile environment. It doesn't try and solve the mysteries but instead gives you the facts and let's you decide for yourself. In particular I loved the grainy black and white film of the people that really brings the story to life.

This is one of the better documentaries I have seen. It will only find a limited audience but if like me the subject matter strikes you as interesting then it's well worth watching.

I have no regrets about seeing this unusual film. I don't think I've ever seen a documentary like it. The tale of a Nietzsche-inspired couple going off to live self-sufficiently on a tiny Galapagos island would be gripping enough. Add the other elements -- the "Baroness" who decides to settle on the island after them with her two lovers, and the bizarre and deadly events that ensue -- and it's really an amazing story.

Why, then, was the documentary so slow and, at times, dull? I think there were too many long, largely irrelevant interviews with people who lived on a nearby island. Their lives were quirky in their own way, but not that interesting, with little connection to the main story. I don't think it's bad to note that others lived on the Galapagos, but I don't think these interviews added much, and at times they were pure digressions. While not omitted entirely, they could have been cut dramatically.

This is a riveting true story, but only parts of the documentary are riveting.