Jungle (2017 Film)
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''Jungle'' is a 2017
biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...
survival Survival or survivorship, the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things ...
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
, based on the true story of Israeli adventurer
Yossi Ghinsberg Yosseph "Yossi" Ghinsberg (; born 5 April 1959) is an Israeli adventurer, author, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and motivational speaker, now based in Byron Bay, Australia. Ghinsberg is most known for his survival story in an uncharted part of th ...
's 1981 journey into the
Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...
. Directed by Greg McLean and written by
Justin Monjo Justin Monjo (born 1963, New York City, New York) is an American screenwriter, television producer, and actor, best known for his work on ''Farscape''. Early life Monjo is the son of children's author F. N. Monjo III and the great-great-grandson ...
, the film stars
Daniel Radcliffe Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English actor. Radcliffe rose to fame at age twelve for portraying the title character in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He starred in all eight films in the series, from '' Harry Potter a ...
as Ghinsberg, with Alex Russell,
Thomas Kretschmann Thomas Kretschmann (; born 8 September 1962) is a German actor who has appeared in many European and American films. His notable roles include Lieutenant Hans von Witzland in ''Stalingrad'' (1993), Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in '' The Pianist'' (2 ...
, Yasmin Kassim,
Joel Jackson Joel Jackson is an Australian actor and musician. He came to prominence for his performances as Charles Bean in '' Deadline Gallipoli'' and Peter Allen in '' Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door''. For both roles he was nominated for the 2015 ...
, and
Jacek Koman Jacek Koman (born 15 August 1956) is a Polish actor and singer. Early life Koman was born in Bielsko-Biała, Poland, to actors Halina Koman (née Dobrowolska; born 3 January 1923) and Adam Koman (24 December 1922 – 1 December 2005), and ca ...
in supporting roles. It was filmed in Mount Tamborine on the Gold Coast in
Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
, Australia.


Plot

In the early 1980s, an Israeli adventurer named
Yossi Ghinsberg Yosseph "Yossi" Ghinsberg (; born 5 April 1959) is an Israeli adventurer, author, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and motivational speaker, now based in Byron Bay, Australia. Ghinsberg is most known for his survival story in an uncharted part of th ...
travels to
Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
planning to journey into the heart of the
Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...
. There, he meets Marcus Stamm, a Swiss school teacher, and Stamm's friend Kevin Gale, an American hiker and avid photographer. The three are staying in
La Paz La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...
, at an Israeli community hostel. Yossi is out in the market one day where a stranger asks if he is an American; Yossi replies ”no”. During conversation the Austrian stranger, Karl Ruprechter, claims the existence of an indigenous tribe in the jungle that they should go see. Karl says he knows the jungle, and he is friends with the tribe. Yossi, excited about the prospect of exploring the uncharted jungle and meeting undiscovered peoples like the
Toromona The Toromona are an indigenous people of Bolivia. They are uncontacted people living near the upper Madidi and Heath Rivers in northwestern Bolivia. Bolivia's Administrative Resolution 48/2006, issued on 15 August 2006, created an "exclusive, ...
s, chooses to believe him. He heads back to the apartment to convince Marcus and Kevin to come along. Sceptical of the stranger and his story, they refuse. Yossi continues to press them until they ultimately acquiesce. The next day, the trio meets Karl in a shop while he is gathering supplies for the hike. All three men are surprised when Karl leaves with the supplies and tells them they will pay for everything. Yossi, Marcus, Kevin, and Karl hike through the jungle for several days. They make it to a village called Asriamas where it is apparent Karl knows the villagers. They spend the day in the village and stay overnight, then head back into the jungle the next morning. Marcus starts having trouble walking and discovers his feet are full of bloody sores. By now Kevin and Yossi are tired of Marcus' complaining. Yossi, Kevin, and Karl discuss how they all should proceed. Karl wants to leave the three while he goes to get help, but Kevin and Yossi disagree with that plan. At this point Marcus walks up, and Kevin proposes building a raft to navigate downriver so all of them can stay together. (This differs from Ghinsberg's actual account, where the four return all the way to Asriamas before deciding to make the raft with the help of the villagers.) They build the raft and set off down the river. They hit some rapids, barely making it through. Karl gets upset at Kevin for taking control on the raft, floats the raft to shore, and says he is going hunting. Kevin had noticed Karl's fear of water and deduces that Karl cannot swim. Yossi then goes to find Karl, so he will not abandon them. Marcus and Karl decide to abandon the journey and make the three-day hike back to civilization where they can then return to La Paz. Meanwhile, Yossi and Kevin continue their journey downriver until their makeshift raft is hung up on a rock in the middle of the rapids. Kevin decides to swim for shore and instructs Yossi to throw him the machete so he can cut vines and pull him to safety, but the raft is instead destroyed in the rapids. Yossi is washed away by the river, leaving Kevin behind. Without a knife, tools, or any kind of survival training, Yossi must improvise shelter and forage to survive. He begins to give up hope after losing all sense of direction, wondering if he will survive the jungle. He is alone for at least two weeks, during which time he has several hallucinations regarding his past and finding a local woman. Meanwhile, Kevin is rescued by people from a nearby town who take him to
Rurrenabaque Rurrenabaque is a small town in the north of Bolivia, on the Beni River. It is the capital of Rurrenabaque Municipality. In recent years, it has become popular with international tourism as it is an easy gateway for visits to Madidi National Par ...
, from Yossi's location, Curiplaya. At Rurrenabaque, Kevin calls for the help of the local authorities to find Yossi. They fail to find Yossi via a plane flyover, but Kevin believes that Yossi is alive. Kevin ropes in the help of the local boat pilot to search for Yossi, finally discovers his weakened friend, and takes him to Rurrenabaque. The epilogue reveals that Karl lied about the hidden tribes, was known to rope backpackers into dangerous treks, and was wanted by the authorities. He and Marcus never returned to La Paz and were never seen again. The film was dedicated to Marcus' memory.


Cast

*
Daniel Radcliffe Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English actor. Radcliffe rose to fame at age twelve for portraying the title character in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He starred in all eight films in the series, from '' Harry Potter a ...
as
Yossi Ghinsberg Yosseph "Yossi" Ghinsberg (; born 5 April 1959) is an Israeli adventurer, author, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and motivational speaker, now based in Byron Bay, Australia. Ghinsberg is most known for his survival story in an uncharted part of th ...
* Alex Russell as Kevin Gale *
Thomas Kretschmann Thomas Kretschmann (; born 8 September 1962) is a German actor who has appeared in many European and American films. His notable roles include Lieutenant Hans von Witzland in ''Stalingrad'' (1993), Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in '' The Pianist'' (2 ...
as Karl Ruprechter *Yasmin Kassim as Kina *
Joel Jackson Joel Jackson is an Australian actor and musician. He came to prominence for his performances as Charles Bean in '' Deadline Gallipoli'' and Peter Allen in '' Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door''. For both roles he was nominated for the 2015 ...
as Marcus Stamm *
Jacek Koman Jacek Koman (born 15 August 1956) is a Polish actor and singer. Early life Koman was born in Bielsko-Biała, Poland, to actors Halina Koman (née Dobrowolska; born 3 January 1923) and Adam Koman (24 December 1922 – 1 December 2005), and ca ...
as Moni Ghinsberg *
Lily Sullivan Lily Sullivan is an Australian actress. She played Coral in the 2012 film ''Mental'' and Miranda in the 2018 television series '' Picnic at Hanging Rock''. She plays leading roles in two 2023 feature films, the Australian sci-fi thriller ''Mon ...
as Amie *
Angie Milliken Angie Milliken is an Australian actress. Early life Milliken was born and raised in the western suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia to a musical family. She played the French horn and competed in athletic sprinting events from the age o ...
as Stela Ghinsberg *Joey Vieira as Black Jack *Paris Moletti as Bolivian *Luis Jose Lopez as Tico


Production

On 10 February 2016,
Daniel Radcliffe Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English actor. Radcliffe rose to fame at age twelve for portraying the title character in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He starred in all eight films in the series, from '' Harry Potter a ...
joined the cast. On 21 March 2016,
Thomas Kretschmann Thomas Kretschmann (; born 8 September 1962) is a German actor who has appeared in many European and American films. His notable roles include Lieutenant Hans von Witzland in ''Stalingrad'' (1993), Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in '' The Pianist'' (2 ...
and Alex Russell also joined the cast.
Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...
began on 19 March 2016 and ended on 13 April 2016.


Release

The film premiered at the
Melbourne International Film Festival The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is an annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was founded in 1952 and is one of the oldest film festivals in the world following the founding of the Venic ...
on 3 August 2017. It was released in Australia on 9 November 2017, by Umbrella Entertainment.


Reception

The
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
gives the film a rating of 62%, based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Daniel Radcliffe does right by ''Jungle''s fact-based story with a clearly committed performance, even if the film around him doesn't always match his efforts." On
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film has a score of 48 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Writing for ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
'', Alex McLevy gave the film a B−, praising Radcliffe's acting commitment and the shock of some of the scenes but wrote, "Unfortunately, the movie too often can’t resist leaning into the melodrama of the situation. Rather than allowing the power to come from the raw intensity of what transpired, it occasionally turns Ghinsberg’s journey into a Hollywood spectacle, making the incredible seem a little less so in the process."
Dread Central Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website f ...
's Jonathan Barkan gave the film 4.5 out of 5, saying that it was, "without a doubt, the most thrilling, exhilarating, and inspiring film I've seen this year."


Accolades

Stefan Duscio was nominated for
Best Cinematography The following is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various films, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best ...
at the
7th AACTA Awards The 7th Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (generally known as the AACTA Awards) took place on 6 December 2017. Presented by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA), the awards celebrated the best in A ...
.


References


External links

* * * {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2019 2017 films 2017 biographical drama films 2010s adventure films Australian drama films Australian adventure films Colombian drama films Drama films based on actual events Films about friendship Films directed by Greg McLean Films scored by Johnny Klimek Films set in Bolivia Films set in jungles 2010s survival films Screen Australia films Australian action adventure films 2017 drama films Films shot on the Gold Coast, Queensland 2010s English-language films English-language Colombian films English-language biographical drama films English-language action adventure films