Chile – a wild adventure – Wild Chile: País Salvaje (2017)

Directed by: Christian Muñoz-Donoso | 52 minutes | documentary

Chile has a special shape on the map. The country winds its way through southwestern South America like a long trail, ending in the southern tip of the continent at the turbulent waves of the Pacific Ocean. It is also a land of natural and climatic extremes. With the Atacama Desert, the country is home to one of the driest areas on earth, while Patagonia in the extreme south is dominated by rugged mountain peaks and wild prairies. The Valdivian forests, on the other hand, are a lush green oasis. The backbone of the country is formed by the mighty Andes, the second highest mountain range on Earth.

Chile’s awe-inspiring and diverse nature has been immortalized in the eight-part series ‘Chile: A Wild Journey’ (aka ‘Wild Chilee’). ‘Chili’ is the eighth episode and offers a 52-minute cross section of the beautiful series. It soon becomes clear that animal life in Chile is full of extremes. In Chilean coastal waters, for example, the blue whale is the largest marine mammal in the world. In fact, the blue whales along the Chilean coast have a unique dialect (similar in sound to the sound of a ship’s engine) that is very different from that of their congeners who roam the maritime wilderness elsewhere. A lot smaller, but no less interesting, is the southern river otter, a rare animal threatened by pollution, illegal hunting and habitat loss that, despite its name, also thrives in seawater.

And it doesn’t stop with fin whales and otters. We also get to know the kodkod (also often called night cat) and pudu, respectively the smallest feline and smallest deer of the Americas, the Andean condor (one of the largest flying birds on Earth), some species of foxes, vampire bats and the degu, a a highly cuddly rodent that can wait for weeks in the summer for the fleshy pods of Vachellia caven (a tree species found in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay) to drop. A female proves that the wait is worth it as we watch her drag the large pods one by one into her burrow.

But the protagonist in this fine documentary is the mighty cougar, the elusive assassin who haunts the Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia. The images that show how a female suckles her young and playfully prepares the kittens for a hunting future are unique. Also beautiful to see is the colorful carpet of flowers that emerges when the usually bone-dry Atacama receives a rare and welcome rain shower.

There is certainly no shortage of breathtaking images in this beautiful and compact compilation. The film takes you from one visual highlight to the next, taking in sweeping sweeping landscape shots (cougars against the backdrop of snow-capped or evening sun-bathed mountain peaks, aerial footage showing immense blue whales gliding gracefully through the blue ocean waters) and intimate close-ups alternate. What the film lacks is a clear narrative structure. It is a collection of beautiful pictures, supplemented with useful facts about the animals, plants and landscapes that pass the viewer’s eye. An eye-pleasing compilation that makes you curious about the complete series.