:03:03
because there are
very, very strong rapids...
:03:06
and you can't move a big boat
into the upper tributary.
:03:10
Um, and for exploiting
an area like this...
:03:13
you need a big boat
for all the logistics and transports and so.
:03:17
And what he does, actually, is that
he moves in a - in a parallel tributary...
:03:22
because he knows there
is one geographical point...
:03:25
where the two river systems
almost join.
:03:27
There's only
one or two miles in between.
:03:30
And with the help of, uh,
1,100 savage Indians...
:03:33
he moves the boat across the -
this mountain ridge.
:03:38
But it all fails because
the Indians release the boat.
:03:41
They untie it,
and it floats downstream...
:03:44
and it crashes through the rapids
and everything was in vain.
:03:48
And still,
with that defeat...
:03:50
Fitzcarraldo is able to turn it
in some kind of a victory-
:03:54
a very painful one, and...
:03:56
that's basically the story of the film.
:04:01
I did not know exactly
in which territory I would end up.
:04:05
Basically we had to make
a geographical decision...
:04:08
where we had two rivers
very, very near to each other...
:04:11
with only a mountain in between.
:04:14
Less than a mile apart.
:04:16
And they had to be navigable as well.
:04:19
So we had very, very few options...
:04:21
and wherever we would end up...
:04:24
I would try to get acquainted with
the native Indians in the territory itself.
:04:31
In November, 1979...
:04:33
Herzog builds a camp for cast and crew...
:04:35
in the dense tropical rain forest
close to the Ecuadorean border.
:04:39
The geography is perfect, but Herzog
has walked into the middle of a tense situation.
:04:43
Twenty-five miles from here, Peru and Ecuador
are building up to a small border war.
:04:48
Thejungle is full of soldiers,
and the Aguaruna Indians...
:04:51
who have lived here
for hundreds of years, are touchy.
:04:55
To make matters worse,
the Peruvian government...
:04:57
has been encouraging settlers
to move into thejungle-
:04:59
a process the Indians are powerless to stop
without legal title to the land.