The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden

An almost stranger-than-fiction tale of paradise found and paradise lost is recounted in the documentary The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, a true-crime mystery that unfolded in the remote islands off the South American coast during the 1930s that remains unsolved to this day.

Tiring of conventional life in Germany, a doctor and his sickly mistress retreat from civilization and head to the furthest reaches of the earth -- the unsettled islands of the nature-filled Galapagos Islands. A family of three soon joins them on the island and tensions begin to build as each have contrasting opinions of what the isle should be like. Things change even more when a beguiling baroness and her two lovers arrive on the island hoping to scout out a location for a fancy hotel.

Things happen. Bad things.

Told through narration by the reading of the actual people's journals and diary entries of their time on the island, the visuals of the film are as equally fascinating as a surprising amount of actual video footage was recorded of the various adventurers. It is as if it was all meant to happen ... so we'd be intrigued anew 80 years later! This little story has remarkably remained secret over the decades ... I'm surprised Hollywood has not tried to adapt this into a jaw-dropping suspense thriller as nobody on the island knew what to think of any of the others once mysterious things started to happen. What did happen? I watched the documentary and am still unsure. It is a perfect mystery ... or it is a perfect hoax.

The film is intriguing and made me think of Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None'. I wish there was more to know ... but there isn't. It is an eternal mystery ...

"A closed mouth admits no flies."

This is a documentary that was not originally photographed or filmed to be a documentary.

The news clippings and '30s era home movies captured the lives of idealistic dreamers and isolationists trying to recreate paradise on the rugged coastal fringe of one of the least inhabited of the virtually uninhabited Galapagos Island group.

The quirky castaway cast of this real life video diary seemed at once, deeply gratified with their aloneness while paired with a disenchanted mate seeking any form of domesticated animal companionship for a feeling of self-worth and value.

Isolated introspective perfection for some, painful loneliness for others.

We view in sharp Black & White clips, shabbily dressed family members standing on the front porch of their weathered tropical shack overlooking a rocky outcrop of brush and cactus while gazing off into the distant waters of Post Office Bay hoping to catch a first glimpse of sail threaded riggings signaling the return of a familiar 3-masted schooner with goods and well wishes from distant places and friends left behind.

Somehow I found myself thinking about all of the present day larger than life personalities you find on the Alaskan survival escapist shows and their gold lusting neighbors. Hardy individuals living on the edge of society to pursue their survivalist dreams and pull riches from the grounds they farm or pan.

This is a documentary about socially awkward characters whose lives take a disruptive turn when the Baroness, soon to be slutty Piratess, arrives on the craggy island paradise with her salt and pepper boy toys.

Unattractive and delusionally self-assured the flagrantly promiscuous Baroness, of dubious royal heritage, becomes the flamboyant center point of islander society.

Territorial infringement, water rights disputes and expected jealousies create a constant undercurrent of distrust and friction.

In the midst of growing tensions we're suddenly treated to a revealing view of the Baroness's talents amply on display in intriguing scenes from the locally acted and produced movie, "The Piratess". An aaarg-rated must see!

After laying down sufficient backstory things start happening, dreadful things. People go missing, more people go missing, dead people are found and others remain mysteriously nowhere to ever be found.

I really enjoyed this stitched together artsy documentary and plan to let it sink in for awhile before watching it again.

The story itself is fascinating, utterly fascinating and probably one of the most insightful looks into "civilized" human nature I have ever seen captured on film. The documentary is confusing though. The story is about three groups on Floreana but the film introduces all these other families, and it's impossible to keep track of the connections to each other. I couldn't figure out if they lived on Florena or another island. I still don't know. They were introduced as if they are a part of the story when they weren't. They were just offering opinions. Anyways it's an imperfect documentary that actually leaves out some interesting details I went on to read on my own after the doc but my rating is in terms of entertainment value overall.

I rather enjoy delving into the lesser known narratives of history. The film is a tour de force in historical research of an obscure, albeit real mystery that was a sensational item at one time (1930s.) European settlers filter onto a very remote island with different agendas, from idealistic to craven, apparently. Built from painfully researched documents and even film, and with interviews from a very special group of humans - those who have lived or were born on the Galapagos Islands, a sketchy legend comes to life into a fascinating narrative of society gone wrong. Ultimately a dark tale of the inability of humanity to go beyond a violent nature (as one aged interviewee says "it's in our genes and there is no escape") even when a few very small parties restart from scratch, isolated from virtually every other human presence on the planet, and clash.

I lived in Galapagos for 4 years (1999-2002) and now run an expedition cruise ship agency focusing on that destination (CNH Tours). One of the people interviewed in the film was a good friend while we were there (Daniel Fitter), and I knowTui de Roy and her late mother Jacqueline, who feature prominently. I also know the family members of several other folks in the film (siblings, descendants). It was wonderful to have all the diverse material brought together to provide a coherent story about what happened on Floreana island. I was very impressed by the quantity of film footage from the 1930's, along with the high quality pictures of the film's protagonists. Perhaps some with little or no connection to the islands will find the film a bit long - but I did not. There was a significant part that focused on the lives of other European settles who had arrived in the islands around the same time, if not a little later than the main characters - this was interesting, but did not contribute to the actual story very effectively. A new edition of the film could remove some of that in an effort to reduce the film's overall length, without compromising the story (though I liked it all!).