''The 5th Monkey'' is a 1990

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 ...

directed and written by

Éric Rochat Éric Rochat (October 18, 1936 in Paris – October 5, 2003 in Rio de Janeiro) was a French film producer, director and scriptwriter. He is mostly known for his success in producing erotic films. Biography He started his cinematographic caree ...

and starring

Ben Kingsley Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Ben Kingsley, various accolades throughout Ben Kingsley on screen and stage, his career spanning fi ...

. The film was based on the novel ''Le Cinquieme Singe'' by Jacques Zibi.

The Cannon Group The Cannon Group, Inc. was an American group of companies, including Cannon Films, which produced films from 1967 to 1994. The extensive group also owned, amongst others, a large international cinema chain and a video film company that investe ...

founder

Menahem Golan Menahem Golan (; May 31, 1929 – August 8, 2014, originally Menachem Globus) was an Israelis, Israeli film producer, screenwriter, and director. He co-owned The Cannon Group with his cousin Yoram Globus. Cannon specialized in producing low-to-mid ...

produced via his

21st Century Film Corporation 21st Century Film Corporation Inc. was a theatrical distribution company formed sometime in the 1970s as a production company and distributor. Menahem Golan was CEO of the company from 1989 to the company's bankruptcy. History The company was f ...

, following the demise of Cannon. The original music score was composed by Robert O. Ragland.

Plot

Cunda (Kingsley) lives deep in the Brazilian

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

and is intent on making enough money so he can marry a widow in his village. However, his trade - capturing snakes for scientists - pays very little money, and he is in direct competition with other suitors. One day, Cunda is bitten by a

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

, and he crawls to the river to recover. While going through the agonizing recovery, he has an hallucination of four chimpanzees sitting in the river. Recovered, he returns home and finds the four chimpanzees waiting for him, and his efforts to shoo them away fail. Knowing that chimpanzees are not native to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, he decides that they are a kind of supernatural gift for him. Believing this, he decides to take them to "the city" to sell them. The journey isn't easy from the start; he discovers that he can't tie them on a rope and drag them, and the only way is to coax them. They stumble into a gold-panning camp, where Cunda is forced to work in order to pay off an old debt. When one of the "monkeys" (chimpanzees) is taken as payment, Cunda must figure how to retrieve him and escape. Later, he, the chimps and the adults of a village are kidnapped by mercenaries. Cunda and the chimps escape, along with a village woman who refuses to leave his side. Arriving at a small town, a confusing sequence results in one of the chimps disappearing, and Cunda becoming the servant of the local rich woman who has taken it upon herself to take care of the chimps. Cunda now has to solve these two problems, and deal with the fact of the

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

woman's attraction to him plus his growing fondness for the chimpanzees he holds captive.

Cast

as Cunda *Silvia De Carvalho as Maria *Mika Lins as Octavia * Vera Fischer as Mrs. Watts

External links

* * English-language Brazilian films 1990 films 1990 romantic drama films American romantic drama films Brazilian romantic drama films Films about animal rights Films about apes Films about poverty Films based on French novels Films based on romance novels Films about hunting Films scored by Robert O. Ragland Films set in Brazil Films set in forests Columbia Pictures films Films produced by Menahem Golan 1990s English-language films 1990s American films 1990s Brazilian films English-language romantic drama films {{1990s-US-drama-film-stub