AllMovie

Filmmakers Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller investigate an intriguing historical mystery that still remains unsolved nearly 100 years after the fact in this documentary featuring the voices of Cate Blanchett, Diane Kruger, Thomas Kretschmann, Connie Nielsen, Gustaf Skarsgård, Sebastian Koch, and Josh Radnor. The macabre story begins in 1929. Determined to seek out the solitude that would free him up to become a great philosopher, German physician Friedrich Ritter (Kretschmann) and his lover Dore (Blanchett) set sail for deserted Floreana Island. A tiny enclave in the Galapagos Islands, it was the kind of picturesque paradise that takes some people a lifetime to find. Yet their solitude was short-lived, because once the press caught wind of the couple's extraordinary adventure, curious newcomers such as the adventuresome Wittmer family from Germany and Austrian Baroness Eloise von Wagner Bosquet (Nielsen) decided that they, too, should experience life on Floreana Island. Unfortunately, there would never be enough resources on this tiny archipelago to sustain the dreams of everyone involved, and later when some of the islanders begin vanishing without a trace, the truth about what really transpired in the middle of the Pacific Ocean would become the stuff of legend.