Dayna Goldfine, Dan Geller, Directors, The Galapagos Affair:Satan Came to Eden.
Festival Section: Berlinale Special.
Filmmakers Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller talk to FRED about their extraordinary documentary,The Galapagos Affair:Satan Came to Eden, a true-crime tale of paradise found and lost.
Darwin meets Hitchcock in this fascinating documentary portrait of a 1930s murder mystery as strange and alluring as the famous archipelago itself. Fleeing conventional society, a Berlin doctor and his mistress start a new life on uninhabited Floreana Island. But after the international press sensationalizes the exploits of the Galapagos’ “Adam and Eve”, others flock there—including a self-styled Swiss Family Robinson and a gun-toting Viennese Baroness and her two lovers. Things would never be the same.
To bring this extraordinary story to life, filmmakers Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller (Ballets Russes) nimbly interweave newly unearthed home movies of these original settlers; testimonies of modern day islanders; stunning HD footage of native flora and fauna; and powerful voice performances by Oscar® winner Cate Blanchett, Diane Kruger, Connie Nielsen, Sebastian Koch, Thomas Kretschmann, Gustaf Skarsgård and Josh Radnor. Macabre yet inspiring, The Galapagos Affair is a gripping parable of Robinson Crusoe adventure and utopian dreams gone awry.
Reporter: Dana Knight.