The shadow Werner Herzogs lies over Pia Marais “Tranamazonia“. Even that the film was made in the deep Amazon jungle is evoked by the films of the“ Aguirre ”director, which often shot under difficult conditions in order to create a special level of authenticity. The tone of Marais' fourth feature film, which tells meandering, works with impressionist pictures and tones, is reminiscent of the German extreme filmmakers – and there is another parallel:
The young German Juliane Koepke, who survived a plane crash in the Amazon at the beginning of the 1970s. Already in 2000, Herzog made a documentary about her with “Juliane's Sturz in the Jungle”, now Marais has also taken the historical incident as a starting point for her film, which tries to bring narrative approaches together in an ambitious way, but keeps getting tangled up. “Transamazonia” finally shows that in 2025 it is apparently no longer possible to make films, as Werner Herzog once did.
Anyone who knows them primarily from “system sprinklers” will be surprised by Helene Zengel in “Transamazonia”.
Rebecca is the only survivor of a plane crash in the depths of the Amazon jungle. The girl finds an indigenous man and takes her to a remote mission station, where her rescue is celebrated like a miracle. Years later, Rebecca (now played by Helena Zengel) lives together with the missionary Lawrence (Jeremy Xido), who seems to be her father. Together they strive for the mental well -being of the indigenous people. Apparently she also succeeds in miracle healing, but whether Rebecca herself believes in her skills remains open.
Not far from the mission station, illegal deforestation takes place that threaten to destroy the livelihood of the indigenous people. But the foreman's wife is sick, even the flowning nurse Denise (Sabine Timoteo) cannot help. But maybe Rebecca? If she succeeds in healing the woman, the lumberjacks want to pull off. But there is something else: Denise believes to know Rebecca's biological mother – and in the teenager triggers the desire to deal deeper with her origin …
A true story as inspiration
Pia Marais was born in South Africa as the daughter of a Swedish-South-African couple, but has lived in Berlin for many years. That is why it is probably not surprising that the director's gaze has always went far beyond Germany. So she regularly occupies roles with international actors and made her film “Layla Fourie” in South Africa, for example. So now the jungle of South America. The director names the story of Juliane Koepke as inspiration for her film, even if the figure of the Rebecca ultimately only has loose similarities with her real model. The real Koepke survived a plane crash in 1971 when the 17-year-old, stripping through the jungle for days until it was saved. It is clear that such a story was fascinated by Werner Herzog, especially since Herzog – a legend to be enjoyed with caution – should climb into the accident machine even, but was decomposed at the last second.
For many years, Herzog then tried to contact Koepke, but it was only at the end of the turn of the millennium that he was finally able to make his documentary “Julian's Sturz in the jungle”, another of his many fictional and documentary jungle films. The connection between Marais and Duke is important for another reason, namely when it comes to dealing with the indigenous population. Marais turned in French Guayana, not far from the border with Brazil-and she emphasizes in the press material as well as in the credits of the film how much the cooperation with the indigenous ones took place. Even a credit as an associated producer admits it to the “indigenous population group of Assurinis”. A nice gesture that raises the question of why she is ultimately so little interested in the indigenous population, their traditions and thoughts in “Transamazonia”.
Above all, the mysterious pictures of the jungle are one of the great strengths of “Transamazonia”.
As a typical White Saviour story (i.e. as a history of a white person who comes into an apparently underdeveloped world and helps the people there), you cannot describe “Transamazonia”, after all, it is more the white figures-Rebecca, but especially Lawrence-need help and, in a way, experience. But the indigenous figures still remain staffage and as such mostly pale in the background. Their increasingly violent conflict with the wooden fellers acts primarily as a catalyst for the coming-of-age history of Rebecca.
Marais does not proceed as negligent as Werner Herzog during the filming of his classic “Fitzcarraldo”. At that time, Duke had hundreds of indigenous people pull a ship over the mountain and also accepted serious injuries to his extras to create – admittedly spectacular – cinematic experience. Such forms of exploitation are no longer possible these days, as I said, Marais has apparently tried to involve the indigenous ones in the process of rotating. However, rather behind the camera. Perhaps the concern was to think into a foreign world as an outsider, as a white man, to write indigenous characters and to use it for their cinematic narrative, in the end. However, this now has the result that the indigenous people always stay in the background, sometimes strip through the jungle like chic, which could also be called problematic mystification.
Strong pictures, even tiger sound
“Transamazonia” always works more convincing when he relies on moods when he focuses on Rebecca, which slowly begins to question their origin. Helene Zengel plays almost speechless, very different from the title -giving figure in her spectacular debut “Systemprenger”. Together with the urgent pictures of cameraman Mathieu de Montgrand and the complex sound design, Marais evokes the puzzlingness of the jungle, which is inviting, but also threatening with its rich, diverse green tones. Unfortunately, this stylistic sovereignty is not evident in the narrative, where Marais tries to bring too many approaches together and almost get lost in the jungle.
Conclusion: In her fourth feature film “Transamazonia”, Pia Marais goes into the depths of the Amazon jungle, where on the one hand she tells of the self-discovery of a 17-year-old survivor of an airplane crash, but on the other hand she also tries to meet the demands of the indigenous population. During this attempt, she gets a little tangle, overloaded her film, which ultimately convinces stylistically and atmospherically.