The River Used to Be a Man

A German tourist goes with a fisherman to the Okavango Delta in Botswana. The next morning the fisherman is dead and the tourist is at the mercy of an unknown culture. With a corpse in the canoe he has to find his way back to civilization. The countless tributaries become a labyrinth for the tourist. Here he is a stranger, an intruder. "In my experiences of both nature and the people living there, I reached the limits of my thinking and perception. These encounters were subjected to laws of kind different from what I have ever experienced anywhere else in the world." (Director Jan Zabeil)

Keywords

  • Award Winning
  • Filmgalerie 451
  • Africa
  • ecology
  • natural

Actors

  • Alexander Fehling
  • Sariqo Sakega
  • Obusentswe Dreamar Manyim

Director

  • Jan Zabeil

Drama, Independent


1h


12 FSK

DE

Germany
2012
A tour de force through the African Okavango swamp that blurs the lines between fiction and documentary.

A tour de force through the African Okavango swamp that blurs the lines between fiction and documentary.


A German tourist goes with a fisherman to the Okavango Delta in Botswana. The next morning the fisherman is dead and the tourist is at the mercy of an unknown culture.


With a corpse in the canoe he has to find his way back to civilization. The countless tributaries become a labyrinth for the tourist. Here he is a stranger, an intruder.


"In my experiences of both nature and the people living there, I reached the limits of my thinking and perception. These encounters were subjected to laws of kind different from what I have ever experienced anywhere else in the world." (Director Jan Zabeil)

Festivals

Cast & Crew