Mburucuyá, cuadros de la naturaleza

Eine Entdeckungsreise des Alexander von Humboldt, der im frühen 19. Jahrhundert gemeinsam mit Aimé Bonpland das Orinoco-Delta erforschte ist Thema von MBURUCUYÁ; eine Art Expedition ins Herz der Finsternis. Sie gewinnt ihren Reiz aus der Dissonanz zwischen dem europäischen Rationalismus und der Hermetik einer mythischen Natur, die sich dem ordnenden Zugriff verschließt. Acha macht aus dem Stoff eine surreale Dschungeloper in billigen Theaterkulissen mit satten, tropikalen Farben, edlen Buchdrucken, rätselhaften kultischen Choreografien, laktierenden Männerbrüsten und Flamencotänzen. Am Ende bleibt die Erkenntnis: Lost in translation! (Thomas Mießgang)

In 1799, polymath Alexander Humboldt and botanist Aimée Bonpland set forth on a long journey through America in search for unknown species. Their passion to see things not yet known and then to name and classify their findings took them through inhospitable and wild geographies such as the Orinoco Basin. Acha’s austere production conditions are no hinderance for him to stage this travel appealing to the expressive power of colors and the irreplaceable poetic function of sound sustained by a cleaver montage work which allows us to feel the jungle without trying to hide that almost everything happens in a studio (and at the zoo, the botanical garden, and an ecological reserve in Buenos Aires). A respectful and critic reading (at the end of the credits there is an ironic quotation offering a comment on the political and anthropological point of view) on the encounter of two worldviews – circumscribed to the interaction of the scientists with the Yaruro Indians – is added to the careful effort to invent a jungle.
MBURUCUYÁ generously offers several unforgettable sequences, but none of them is like the subjective shot of a wild animal and its revelation, an image which synthetizes the admirable creativity of a filmmaker who is able to build an immeasurable ecosystem within just a few square feet. (Roger Koza)