: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.
:05:04
Lumber and oil interests are encroaching
on this part of the forest as well.
:05:19
The Amazon jungle is disappearing fast.
:05:22
Every month,
8,000 square miles are cut down.
:05:25
At the present rate,
by the year 2010...
:05:28
the entire Amazon basin
will be cleared.
:05:42
The ongoing invasion of thejungle
has made the Aguaruna Indians...
:05:45
see every stranger as a threat.
:05:47
But Herzog assures them
that he's not moving in permanently...
:05:51
and the local Aguarunas
agree to let him shoot.
:05:54
Herzog needs Indians
as actors and laborers...
:05:56
and the Aguarunas
agree to that as well.