Review of Tierra del Fuego

It was a very interesting film for me. I confess that, previously, I had never heard about a character named Julius Popper. But he really was a shady historical figure, a kind of "conquistador" of the late nineteenth century, who was driven to the island of "Tierra del Fuego" in the southernmost extreme of South America, in search of gold, glory, power, lands and adventure not necessarily in this order. The movie was based in a book of tales entitled "Tierra del Fuego" written by the prestigious novelist born in Chile, Francisco Coloane and in documents like diaries. photographs and chronicles of Popper himself. The locations in the film are imposing. They show us a forbidden landscape, semiarid and very cold, slanted rays of sun that generate long shadows and a desolated beach of rocks and rubble constantly being buffeted by the gelid ocean water. The starring role is fulfilled with great power and authority by the Cuban actor Jorge Perugorría. Popper is portrayed as a man full of contradictions, sometimes a genius, an inventor, an engineer, a scientist, others a madman, a little Hernán Cortés, an impractical dreamer and sadly and finally, a responsible for a genocide. His followers are the human derelicts of various nationalities, frustrated people that have been pushed or have fled from their countries, and they have arrived at the end of the known world against all hope looking for fortune. They are easily rallied by the charismatic Popper. Novak (Nelson Villagra), the implacable military man, Silveira (Nacho Novo), the Spanish bagpipe player born and brought up in Galicia with a tragic background, Shaeffer((Álvaro Rudolphy), the drunkard and Spiro (Claudio Santamaría), the Italian fortune hunter. And there are two women in the adventure of Popper. Armenia (Ornella Muti), head of a group of prostitutes. She was very effective in the role. Like always, when is required, she delivers a strong performance, and the only catch in these case, is that she has not enough time in the screen to fully develop her character. Armenia is the financial backer and partner of Popper and constantly reminds him that he came to this forgotten of God place, to find gold and make a fortune for both. She is finally disappointed and her no- nonsense attitude is very clear in front of the grandiloquent delusions and bad decisions of Popper. She ends up joining Spiro, knowing that gold is a chimera and that the real riches are found in working the land and breeding sheep, like others landowners do in that region. Mennar (Tamara Acosta) is the other woman in the story. Ex slave of Armenia, she is freed by Popper who is fascinated for her beauty and dignity and when he knows that she is a queen of the "Onas" (Selknam), he dreams of creating an empire mixing both cultures and bringing the tribe from the barbarity to civilization. Of course, the aborigines resents the slave work that they are forced to do and the lack of a common language, further increases the frustration and they flee, seeking refuge in their natural habitat. In a fit of rage Popper incites to the genocide, offering a reward in gold for whoever kills a native and bring back a sample of his deed, meaning an ear or a genital. Unfortunately this killing was an historical fact that blackened once more the history of the conquest of America. The film was directed by Miguel Littin, an experimented Chilean director who also took part in the writing of the script. It was said that the result was not satisfactory, that the narrative was confusing and the characters were shallows. But this whole historical episode is in itself messy. I liked the professionalism of the cast and the impact of the story. Thanks to this film, I took conscience for the first time of the existence of Julius Popper, his crazy scheme for harvesting gold out of the sea water and the tragic clash of different cultures that almost wiped out the tribe of the "Onas" (Selknam).