The Flight of The Crocodile – Ruy Cinatti’s Timor

The Flight of The Crocodile – Ruy Cinatti’s Timor

2024 · 72 min · Documentary

“I am totally in love with Timor!”, said the Portuguese poet, anthropologist and agronomist Ruy Cinatti upon arriving on the island. From 1946 to 1974, he led a nomadic experiment, building a lasting relationship with Timor-Leste’s people and territory. The cultural identity he sought to protect is threatened by colonial oppression and the decline of the Portuguese Empire. Rejecting these circumstances, Cinatti reaches out to the people and its tribes, documenting rituals, filming, photographing and even making blood oaths with tribal chiefs to gain access to sacred places and become a Timorese.

Directed by Fernando Vendrell

Your Rating

Cast

Make it a double feature

3h 6m together

The Flight of The Crocodile – Ruy Cinatti’s Timor

Nheengatu – The Language of the Amazon

Both from Fernando Vendrell.

More from Fernando VendrellSee all →

ApparitionApparition · 2018
Apparition
★ 10.02018
MovieRomanceDrama
A writer becomes the main character in the story he intended to write
Nheengatu – The Language of the AmazonNheengatu – The Language of the Amazon · 2020
Nheengatu – The Language of the Amazon
★ 10.02020
MovieDocumentary
Nheengatu – The Language of the Amazon takes us on a journey along the Negro River, on the trail of this language imposed on indigenous people by the first Portuguese colonialists who landed in Brazil in the 15th century. Throughout the various encounters with local communities that still speak this language, the director faces the different cultural, historical and social issues that confront tradition and future.
Star SailorsStar Sailors · 2025
Star Sailors
★ 10.02025
SeriesDramaAction & Adventure
The fearless race of the 1920's Portuguese aviation pioneers to cross the South Atlantic Ocean through aerial navigation, became an epic story of the modern age argonauts. In order to reach the stars - sailing is necessary- navigandum est.
SkinSkin · 2006
Skin
★ 9.02006
MovieDrama
Pele is a film about a young mulatto woman that in spite of being rich, beautiful and intelligent, feels discriminated because of the colour of her skin. The entire plot is in the early 70's, when Portugal had a dictatorial government, ultramarine territories and lots of racism in its society… Issues like racism, female condition and the spoilt lives of the high-society are the main themes of this movie
I Was in Lisbon and Remembered YouI Was in Lisbon and Remembered You · 2015
I Was in Lisbon and Remembered You
★ 8.52015
MovieDrama
"In the beginning of this project, I wanted to do a documentary film based on this book by Luiz Ruffato. However, I ended up doing a feature film with many links to documentary. I wanted to know what made Brazilians want to emigrate to Portugal. I chose working with amateur actors and non-actors in both cities, so their own life stories and experiences could be in the film. I did the other way round from the writer. He found these people and made them characters of his book. I looked for people who had similar stories to those described in the book, and made them characters of my film. When I read the book, I was seduced by its "false documentary" characteristic. The book was all written as if it was the transcription of an oral interview the writer had done in Lisbon. I decided to keep this narrative in the film, by a narration with the main character talking to the camera. It's a film about emigration. About dreams and disappointments," says Barahona
Une femme dans la tourmenteUne femme dans la tourmente · 1995
Une femme dans la tourmente
★ 8.01995
MovieTV Movie
Michèle is the new French consul in a South American country. She quickly discovers that the government is, in fact, a dictatorship. Moreover, her seventeen-year-old daughter is involved in the revolution against the regime.
Sombras BrancasSombras Brancas · 2023
Sombras Brancas
★ 8.02023
MovieFantasyDrama
At the age of 71, a highly regarded writer, José Cardoso Pires, suffers a major stroke and loses his memory and the ability to relate to the rest of the world. Everybody seems to defy the famous author to write another novel that recounts this adventure telling his "last story", the most conclusive of his career, the one of his accidental journey to the clear shadows territory.
3 Women3 Women · 2018
3 Women
★ 8.02018
SeriesDramaDocumentary
A historical fiction series that, from the biographies and cultural and civic intervention of the poet Natalia Correia, the editor Snu Abecassis and the journalist Vera Lagoa (pseudonym of Maria Armanda Falcão), recalls the last years of the Estado Novo (Second Republic) - 1961 to 1973 - from the beginning of the colonial War to the eve of the April Revolution.
BocageBocage · 2006
Bocage
★ 8.02006
SeriesDrama
Hovering Over the WaterHovering Over the Water · 1986
Hovering Over the Water
★ 7.51986
MovieDramaRomance
Laura Rossellini, a widow from Rome, vacations on the Algarve coast one hot summer. One day while sunbathing, she finds a wounded man named Robert drifting in the surf on a rubber raft. She takes him home, and, after he is revived, learns his story. As they talk, their mutual attraction grows, until a group of armed men suddenly arrive looking for Robert.
Variações: Guardian AngelVariações: Guardian Angel · 2019
Variações: Guardian Angel
★ 7.02019
MovieMusicHistory
Film biography dwelling on the hectic artistic life of António Variações, a famous Portuguese pop rock singer from the 80s, who died from AIDS-related complications in 1984.
Bloody NightBloody Night · 2010
Bloody Night
★ 7.02010
MovieHistoryTV Movie
A group of soldiers are sentenced for the murders of key political figures in the night of October 19th, 1921, in the streets of Lisbon. But the names of the conspirators remain unknown. Berta Maia, a widow of the 1910 revolution hero Carlos da Maia, will fight for the truth…
The CannibalsThe Cannibals · 1988
The Cannibals
★ 7.01988
MovieDramaFantasy
This odd film is a major representative of an even odder film genre: direct-to-celluloid opera. It was commissioned by the Portuguese master of style, director Manoel de Oliveira from composer João Paes. Musically, it ranges from 19th-century romanticism to popular, modernist and even "post-modernist" styles. In the initially tame story, a host-narrator tells the story of a wedding between the two lovebirds: Viscount d'Aveleda and the beautiful Marguerite. However, what happens in the bridal chamber is incredibly bizarre. The events after that are even stranger, and the wedding guests and family indulge in cannibalism, among other perversions.
The Great KilapyThe Great Kilapy · 2012
The Great Kilapy
★ 7.02012
MovieDramaComedy
Zézé Gamboa's sardonic historical drama follows a good-hearted, apolitical con man who, on the eve of Angolan independence in the mid-1970s, pulls off a massive swindle at the expense of the Portuguese colonial administration — and soon after finds himself hailed as a hero of the national liberation struggle.
Belle ÉpoqueBelle Époque · 1992
Belle Époque
★ 6.71992
MovieComedyDrama
In 1931, a young soldier deserts from the army and falls into a country farm, where he is welcomed by the owner due to his political ideas. Manolo has four daughters, Fernando likes all of them and they like him, so he has to decide which one to love.
AmokAmok · 1993
Amok
★ 6.71993
MovieDramaComedy
Whenever people are released from their society's constraints, there is the possibility that they will behave badly, at least according to the rules of the society they have left behind. This seems to have been particularly the case for Europeans living in colonial establishments in Africa and Asia. In this drama, based on a story by Stefan Zweig, Dr. Steiner (Andrzej Seweryn) was caught with his fingers in the till at a German hospital. Rather than prosecute him, they gave him the option of emigrating elsewhere. He chose to serve at a clinic in a remote part of Portuguese Goa. He has been on his best behavior for years, but when the beautiful wife (Fanny Ardant) of a diplomat comes to him asking for an abortion, he is tempted to ask for sexual favors in return, and his life swiftly goes out of control.

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter