The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden

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.

German and French expatriates relocate to the Galapagos Island of Floreana, where their dreams of solitude take a tragic turn after a series of disappearances. A cast of voice-actors wonderfully narrate the writings of the residents, while current interviews from those who live on the islands paint a vivid picture of what the settlers were searching for and what could've gone wrong. The whole affair is brilliantly pieced together in a cinematic three-act structure, with the majority of the subject's actions being shown through photographs, newspaper clippings and archive footage. Shortening or cutting out an interview or two would've improved the pacing. Meant to shed light, not give answers. If you want a realistic story of trouble in Paradise, look here!

★★★½ (out of four)

This is a documentary that was not originally photographed or filmed to be a documentary.

The news clippings and '30s era home movies captured the lives of idealistic dreamers and isolationists trying to recreate paradise on the rugged coastal fringe of one of the least inhabited of the virtually uninhabited Galapagos Island group.

The quirky castaway cast of this real life video diary seemed at once, deeply gratified with their aloneness while paired with a disenchanted mate seeking any form of domesticated animal companionship for a feeling of self-worth and value.

Isolated introspective perfection for some, painful loneliness for others.

We view in sharp Black & White clips, shabbily dressed family members standing on the front porch of their weathered tropical shack overlooking a rocky outcrop of brush and cactus while gazing off into the distant waters of Post Office Bay hoping to catch a first glimpse of sail threaded riggings signaling the return of a familiar 3-masted schooner with goods and well wishes from distant places and friends left behind.

Somehow I found myself thinking about all of the present day larger than life personalities you find on the Alaskan survival escapist shows and their gold lusting neighbors. Hardy individuals living on the edge of society to pursue their survivalist dreams and pull riches from the grounds they farm or pan.

This is a documentary about socially awkward characters whose lives take a disruptive turn when the Baroness, soon to be slutty Piratess, arrives on the craggy island paradise with her salt and pepper boy toys.

Unattractive and delusionally self-assured the flagrantly promiscuous Baroness, of dubious royal heritage, becomes the flamboyant center point of islander society.

Territorial infringement, water rights disputes and expected jealousies create a constant undercurrent of distrust and friction.

In the midst of growing tensions we're suddenly treated to a revealing view of the Baroness's talents amply on display in intriguing scenes from the locally acted and produced movie, "The Piratess". An aaarg-rated must see!

After laying down sufficient backstory things start happening, dreadful things. People go missing, more people go missing, dead people are found and others remain mysteriously nowhere to ever be found.

I really enjoyed this stitched together artsy documentary and plan to let it sink in for awhile before watching it again.

I found this movie fascinating from several perspectives. First of all, it is the story of a supposedly everyday German couple that decide to abandon their regular lifestyle and head off to a remote location on the other side of the world. Wow you would think that this was a 60s couple heading off to Marrakesh! Well no, we have Friedrich Ritter a respected doctor, a veteran of the great war and also married. He decides to pack up and leave with his mistress Dore Stauch, also married, to live on the other side of the world.

This is no ordinary doctor, we are told that he loves Nietzsche, but not much else about his politics other than the fact that he comes from an old conservative family. Could it be like many artists and visionaries that he saw the future from this period in 1934 and didn't like what he saw?

We see the development of their life on one of the small islands of the Galapagos and its ups and downs. We are shown original movie footage and newspaper clippings which really lock you in. Next we see the arrival of the other settlers, the Wittmers and the Baroness and her entourage. The Baroness wants to develop a hotel for rich Americans and sure enough a ship full of them show up to explore the strange press tales that are being published. Again all original footage.

We also get to meet all the current inhabitants of the island and how their histories develop from the original settlers, this is also extremely interesting. It seems to me the Friedrich and Dore made a good decision to explore the world!

I rather enjoy delving into the lesser known narratives of history. The film is a tour de force in historical research of an obscure, albeit real mystery that was a sensational item at one time (1930s.) European settlers filter onto a very remote island with different agendas, from idealistic to craven, apparently. Built from painfully researched documents and even film, and with interviews from a very special group of humans - those who have lived or were born on the Galapagos Islands, a sketchy legend comes to life into a fascinating narrative of society gone wrong. Ultimately a dark tale of the inability of humanity to go beyond a violent nature (as one aged interviewee says "it's in our genes and there is no escape") even when a few very small parties restart from scratch, isolated from virtually every other human presence on the planet, and clash.