In this film, Venezuelan director Diego Risquéz has focused on the life of South America's famed libertador, Simón Bolívar. He explores the episodes in Bolívar's life and tragic death by using images alone (no dialogue), a technique that makes his subject matter quite abstruse. Only viewers already familiar with the legend of the man and the early history of Venezuela will recognize many of the symbols and the storyline.

This is an experimental film with almost no dialogue, except for a few words in Italian in the middle of the film. Conquistadors capture an Indian (Alberto Martín) and bring him back to Europe along with birds and other exotica. He is kept at court as a specimen to be displayed and looked at. A princess in the Italian begins a clandestine affair with him and has a child. Eventually, the Indian escapes the castle, but only goes to a small island where they can watch him with a telescope. Slow, symbolic, and dream-like, this fascinating experiment might have benefited from more rigorous cutting. But the contrast between indigenous harmony with nature and European estrangement from nature has never been expressed better. Amérika, terra incógnita may be regarded as part of a trilogy of films that begins with Bolívar: sinfonía tropical (1981) and Orinoko: nuevo mundo (1984, see below). His images are often based on well-known 19th century paintings by Arturo Michelena or Juan Lovera.

Venezuelan film