A simple story of a professional city dweller who moves with his family to the Peruvian jungle to tame the wilderness is turned by the director into a mesmerizing, timeless film exploring the deep bonds of love, community, and connection.
The film does a good job contrasting the frustrating, cold sterile bureaucracy of the city to the lush, warm, and sensual beauty of nature. Juxtaposing time and places, the director uses flashbacks to memory to weave together an absorbing film based on the director's own tragic personal experiences.
The film features excellent performances and the use of interesting camera angles in personal, intimate settings making one feel like a voyeur. This is a film whose images and characters will remain with you long after watching it. As Pauline Kael of the New Yorker wrote: "The film's final sequence is masterful movie making... a haunting glimpse of humanity that lingers in the mind"