Hollywood goes to great
lengths to come up with stories for the screen. But often we find that the real life shenanigans
of people being people — flawed, eccentric and perhaps even dangerous — make
for some of the best tales.
Such is the case with
documentary filmmakers Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine, who looked back down
the corridor of time to the island of Floreana in the Galapagos — and the
bizarre events that unfolded there — for their film, The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came To
Eden.
It is due to make its DVD
debut from Zeitgeist Films on Sept. 9.
Its theatrical run (arthouse and major metro) generated ticket sales of
$242,288 and the ARR for its post-Labor Day release window works out to 158
days.
With economic uncertainty
and storm clouds on the horizon in Europe during the 1930s a group of German
ex-pats descended on Floreana to live alone and be carefree. The first to arrive were Friedrich Ritter
(voiced over by Thomas Kretschmann) and his sickly paramour Dore Strauch (voice
of Cate Blanchett), who we learn of through letters (written mainly by Ritter)
and photos that the filmmakers have assembled into a narrative.
History records that soon
after Ritter and Strauch set up their “homestead” on the island another German
family arrived, the Wittmers — husband, wife (who would give birth to first
child born in the Galapagos) and teenage son.
They too set up camp and a sort of understanding was reached that they
would leave each other alone. Peace.
This paradise was turned
topsy-turvy soon after when young Austrian Eloise Wehrborn de Wagner-Bosquet
(voiced by Connie Nielsen) — who claimed to be a baroness — and her two German
lovers set up shop on the island.
Flamboyant, eccentric and by even today’s standards, “liberated.” It would prove to be too much for the standoffish
German settlers.
You can’t make this stuff
up … when the ménage à trois went
south, the spurned lover, a fellow by the name of Lorenz, sought refuge with
the Wittmers and then on a spring day in 1934 both the “baroness” and her lover
disappeared (a hastily prepared voyage to Tahiti was the story). Ritter, as history records, suspected the
Wittmers and their “guest” of doing away with the pair.
It gets better. Lorenz decides to leave the island and
catches a ride with a passing fisherman … their bodies were found several
months later rotting on the northern most island in the chain (Floreana being
the southern most in the chain!).
About six months after
the baroness vanished and Lorenz met his doom, Ritter suddenly went toes-up as
a result of food poisoning. Mrs. Wittmer
(voiced by Diane Kruger) recorded that Ritter declared that Strauch did him
in!
Agatha Christie in
Darwin’s paradise … The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came To Eden is well-worth a look come
Sept. 9 if you can’t catch it at your local cinema.
To download this week's
complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report
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