Galapagos: Hope for the Future (2019)

Directed by: Evert van den Bos | 85 minutes | documentary | Dutch voice cast: Annechien Steenhuizen

Galapagos: Hope for the Future opens with images showing the arrival of a new year being celebrated in a number of global metropolises. The ingredients of the party are the same everywhere: dazzling fireworks displays, lots of noise and cheerful, noisy crowds. Then, however, we switch to an uninhabited part of the Galápagos Islands. The contrast could not be greater. A magnificent star palette, unaffected by the light pollution ubiquitous in densely populated areas, provides the only light in the night sky here, while a group of people celebrate the New Year in all intimacy while enjoying a flickering campfire and a modest drink.

It is not without reason that the Galápagos Islands are seen as one of the last natural meccas on earth in a time of declining global biodiversity. The archipelago is home to many species that are found nowhere else on Earth. Moreover, the animals are not afraid of people at all, so as a tourist you can come toe to toe with nesting sea birds, giant turtles and small godzillas. Galápagos is also a historically significant place, especially as the islands had a significant influence on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

‘Galapagos: Hope for the Future’ takes the viewer to the magical volcanic-fire-born archipelago that lies about a thousand kilometers west of the Ecuadorian mainland. The leading role is played by the iconic animals that inhabit the archipelago. Eye-popping images include albatrosses flying elegantly and seemingly effortlessly over breathtaking landscapes, blue-footed boobies performing their clownish-looking dance of seduction, marine iguanas basking in algae and basking in large flocks, graceful hammerhead sharks traversing azure waters and Galapagos cormorants (a species that has lost its ability to fly due to a lack of natural enemies) that are the kleptomaniacs when building their nests. The alternation between razor-sharp close-ups and expansive landscape images creates a pleasant dynamic.

But ‘Galapagos: Hope for the Future’ is more than just a series of beautiful pictures. We also become part of the work of scientists and local residents, people who do everything they can to map and protect vulnerable nature. We see them capture and release Galápagos penguins to measure the health of the animals and equip sharks with transmitters to learn more about the migratory behavior of the predatory fish. The giant tortoises, the animals for which the islands are named, are also closely followed. Various breeding programs ensure young growth, while opuntia cacti are also grown and planted to provide sufficient food for the primeval giants.

The documentary, talked to each other by newsreader Annechien Steenhuizen (in the English version, pop star Ronan Keating is the narrator) also has an eye for the problems that threaten paradise. For example, there are exotics that outcompete or decimate native species. Blackberries, for example, overgrow the original scalesia forests in many places, while the mangrove finch, balancing on the edge of an ecological abyss, is threatened by the blood-sucking larvae of an exotic species of fly. In addition, the waters that surround the Galápagos Islands are also plagued by the enormous amounts of (mostly plastic) litter that nowadays float through the world’s seas. A problem such as climate change, on the other hand, remains largely unnamed.

All in all, Galapagos: Hope for the Future is a film that combines beauty with urgency. The filmmakers use a cautiously optimistic tone, which – entirely in line with the title – mainly focuses on hope instead of doom-mongering. The film could have gone a bit more in-depth here and there, but as a visual pamphlet for a more harmonious, knowledge-based symbiosis between man and nature, the documentary is certainly convincing.