In an unidentified South American country, the corrupt government confiscates all diamond mines from private ownership which causes a revolution. A small band of fugitives: an adventurer (Georges Marchal), a prostitute (Simone Signoret), a priest (Michel Piccoli), a miner (Charles Vanel) and his deaf mute daughter (Michele Girardon) escape down the river and into the jungle where they struggle to survive. One of the least seen and discussed of Luis Bunuel's films, it's easy to see why. Not that it's bad, quite the contrary, it's very good but it doesn't fit easily into the Bunuel canon. On the surface, it's a colorful (shot in Eastman color) jungle adventure seemingly not all that different from its Hollywood brethren. Quite different from the irreverently playful Bunuel that would dominate the 1960s art houses. But it's characters are all highly flawed, some physically and some morally and some psychologically. Bunuel's bleak ending and possible symbolism (I'm not sure but Piccoli's priest seems to be some kind of Christ figure) separate it from the glossy jungle adventures Hollywood was grinding out in the 1950s. A warning: there's actual animal cruelty (not simulated) in the film so be prepared.
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