Larry Silverstein Although this documentary could have used a little better editing, at 2 hours long, I still found it a fascinating tale.It begins in 1929, when Dore Straunch and Friedrich Riiter decide to leave their families and careers, in Germany, and move to the uninhabited island of Floreana, in the Galapagos Islands, West of Ecuador. They have had it with civilization and want to live a new life in virtually total isolation away from the world.However, some of their writings back to Germany are leaked to the press, who paint them as a modern version of Adam and Eve or the new Robinson Crusoes. In time (1932), another family the Wittmers, having read about the Ritters, come to Floreana to also get away from the world, much to the resentment and chagrin of the Ritters.The Wittmers, also German, consist of Margret, her husband Heinz, and their son Henry. They take up residence on the far side of the island, away from the Ritters. Soon though, the self-proclaimed French Baroness Eloise von Wagner also arrives on the island with her two minions Robert Philippson and Rudolf Lorenz. The Baroness is quite domineering and soon causes friction with the other islanders, as well as possessing a wild scheme of building a hotel there geared for millionaires.In time, the tension and bad feelings between the inhabitants of the island begins to boil over, and when they're hit with a drought in 1934, it will lead to a point of no return. There will be threats, mysterious deaths and most likely murders occurring.The movie is enhanced by actual film footage of all the island dwellers, and although we don't hear their voices their journals and writings are read effectively during the film to coincide with the what's happening on screen. I was quite surprised to see the list of movie notables who were doing the reading during the run of the credits.All in all, I found this documentary, directed by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, to be quite fascinating and interesting, based on a subject I knew nothing about before viewing it.

altereggonyc I have no regrets about seeing this unusual film. I don't think I've ever seen a documentary like it. The tale of a Nietzsche-inspired couple going off to live self-sufficiently on a tiny Galapagos island would be gripping enough. Add the other elements -- the "Baroness" who decides to settle on the island after them with her two lovers, and the bizarre and deadly events that ensue -- and it's really an amazing story. Why, then, was the documentary so slow and, at times, dull? I think there were too many long, largely irrelevant interviews with people who lived on a nearby island. Their lives were quirky in their own way, but not that interesting, with little connection to the main story. I don't think it's bad to note that others lived on the Galapagos, but I don't think these interviews added much, and at times they were pure digressions. While not omitted entirely, they could have been cut dramatically. This is a riveting true story, but only parts of the documentary are riveting.

twilliams76 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."

teharatats 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.