Cobra Verde = Slave coast [Dubbed]

Set in the early nineteenth century, Cobra Verde moves from Brazil to Dahomey in West Africa. Francisco Manoel de Silva, an historical figure at the centre of the novel, is amalgamated with that of the bandit Cobra Verde to serve Herzog’s private mythologising. But Verde is not as distinctly drawn as the obsessive characters played by Klaus Kinski in ‘Aguirre’ and ‘Fitzcarraldo’, the Herzog films with which Cobra Verde can be most directly compared. Loosely improvised and more of ‘a happening’, ‘Cobra Verde’ has some extraordinary scenes and magnificent images. The historical issues of slavery and colonialism are typically (for Herzog) subsumed in a mystico-spiritual game. Cast also includes King Ampaw, Jose Lewgoy and Salvatore Basile. In German with English subtitles. Based on the novel “The Viceroy of Ouidah” by Bruce Chatwin.