Der Fluss war einst ein Mensch

In his feature debut, the young German Jan Zabeil follows in the footsteps of Werner Herzog. He travels with a tiny crew – an actor, a cameraman and a sound man – to Africa in order to seek adventure in the wilderness. His film is half documentary, half staged and largely improvised. Real and imagined events intertwine, and the result is like a nightmare about alienation and disorientation.
A white young man, played by Alexander Fehling, slowly loses any sense of logic. He is a guest in Africa in the territory of all kinds of animals and can be consumed at any moment. When the old fisherman who takes him upstream disappears without trace, he is left on his own.
A confrontation with his own fears and observations follows. But what exactly goes on inside him remains a closed book. Zabeil leaves most questions unanswered. A hellish journey through darkest Africa – without the exoticism being exploited.

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