Orinoko, nuevo mundo

This unique telling of history in the Orinoco River region of Venezuela is also a telling of the history of the New World. It is told without dialogue. This may work well for its intended audience familiar with that region, but most of the rest of us could use some help. Before viewing this film, one should understand that the film has several parts set in three different centuries. I detected five main stories: pre-Columbian native life, arrival of Columbus on his third voyage, the work of a missionary, Sir Walter Raleigh in his search for El Dorado, and scientific study in the region by renown naturist-scientist Alexander von Humboldt in the very early 1800s. The film is rather poetic and some I am sure will find it arty to a fault. Nonetheless, despite or perhaps because of its artistic license I think it has a certain realism that I have not found elsewhere.