The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden is a must see documentary for fans of Unsolved Mysteries with a dash of Hollywood Babylon. The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden also provides a cautionary tale for those wearied by the hateful political rhetoric of civilization, at the time, 1930s post WWI Germany, that leaving one’s homeland may not solve your problems if you are the problem. The fantasy of an island paradise is a fiction destroyed by people.
The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden is the story of three groups of people who left their respective homelands and randomly decided to live on the Galapagos islands then felt annoyed as if they owned the place when others followed suit. The first group was a German couple, a wacky doctor and his sick mistress. The second group was a German family that the first couple derided as too conventional. The third group consisted of a woman called the Baroness, who acted as if she ruled the island, and her two lovers. For that time and place, the Baroness brought the danger and allure of raw, unbridled female sexuality that simultaneously tempted and enraged its inhabitants. Even the grumpy doctor was not immune to her allure. Soon there are a number of disappearances and an unexplained death, which for a population of seven adults, is not a great track record.
The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden includes excerpts from the adventurers’ journals and letters read by a handful of amazing actors such as Cate Blanchett, Thomas Kretschmann, Diane Kruger, Connie Nielsen and Gustaf Skarsgard. The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden even features film footage made by the Baroness herself.
The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden adds perspective by interviewing the island’s current inhabitants, including the descendants of the original settlers. Ultimately even the descendants, some of whom were present at the time of mystery, cannot answer the question in the mind of the viewers: what really happened?
If you like a good period murder mystery with eccentric characters, exotic locales and sex scandals, then The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden. Sartre is right-hell is other people.