Isolated

I admit I didn't watch it until the end. But that was because I became bored with one too many scenes of native children playing in the surf, feral surfers showing children how to surf, ruminations about us all living together happily, surfing on low waves as they search for the big wave. A lady alluded to the fact that genocide is going on in the country and that it's being kept secret. But that has been known for a few years especially with the growth of the internet. Actually more inclusion of the human rights violations mentioned in the Netflix promo probably would have helped break up the drowsy inducing scenes of the hip young Westerners interfacing with their native hosts but as I said I finally couldn't take it anymore. Maybe at the end they found the big wave I don't know by then a wave of sleep had overtaken me.

Come on IMDB! It's called West Papua, it's not New Guinea. Watch the film, it's super interesting and learn something new and see see for yourself.

The entitlement displayed in this film is very troubling to me. This kind of "dropping in" on a culture and feigning understanding and bonding with the people who live there is disrespectful and ethnocentric. I could not continue watching it - heard "they were like family" one too many times. Also, featuring the woman cast member in her bikini in every other shot, when the native women were covered, was painful to watch. Did these people not do any kind of basic research on Papua, New Guinea and its culture before they made this trip? Or did they not care? The lack of responsibility and awareness is just astounding.

great chill film

I enjoyed vicariously witnessing wildly beautiful places with sanguine surfing explorers, and the side story's (which develops into THE story) added depth (which is all about caring for strangers) really fixed me happily to the whole tale.

Another critic skewered this film for lack of integrity. If all he gathered from this film is that these surfers were "trust fund babies" on a vacation, then I think the guy is simply disagreeable. Sometimes the people trying anything they can think of to make a difference seem silly to people whose efforts have never reached beyond the criticism of others.