There s an opening overhead shot of the Brazilian rain forest, dense and limitless. As a tourist boat slides along a river, indigenous tribesmen materialize on the banks to regard it reproachfully. They hold bows and arrows and don t seem fond of these visitors. But hold on; one of the young men has a layered haircut with a blond top.
As recently as the 1970s, when Herzog filmed Aguirre, the Wrath of God in such a forest, these Indians would have been real. But the time is the present, and the forest a preserved facade shielding fields that have been stripped of trees and devoted to farming. If they want, the Indians can pile into a truck and hire out as day laborers. But all of their traditions center on the forest and its spirits, and this new life is alienating. Some simply commit suicide.