The Emerald Forest is a 1985 film set in the remote Xingu region of Brazil's Amazon rain forest that was directed by John Boorman, a noted English filmmaker. During his long career, his films have ranged from male-bonding action films such as Deliverance (1972) to those that relate to keeping the nuclear family intact, a theme prominent, for example, in his 1987 film Hope and Glory. In that film, the family at stake was being torn apart by World War II and the Blitz on London (a story based on his own experiences as a child during that time). In The Emerald Forest, an American family called the Markhams is irretrievably fractured when their son, Tommy, is kidnapped by Amazonian Indians. The film concentrates on his identification with his adopted tribe, his disinterest in returning to "civilization," and his family's (especially his father's) ultimate acceptance of his life with the tribe who reared him.
Based on a true story (although perhaps more loosely than most people realize), The Emerald Forest documents in a fictionalized form the final, and successful, search of the father for the son over a period of ten years. The film begins with the family starting their new life in South America when Bill Markham is posted there on an engineering job for a huge dam (however, acceptance of their new culture and home is not an issue directly addressed in the film). While on a picnic at a site where the rain forest is being cleared, young Tommy wanders into the forest, where he is kidnapped by members of a tribe known as the "Invisible People."
An early image in the film shows fluffy, white clouds reflected on the windshield of the Markham family car as they travel to the picnic site. Their hopeful faces glow through the clouds in a direct parallel with the optimism of the shot. Tommy's encounter with the Indians begins with the chief touching Tommy's hair with a feather and being amused that his fairness does not rub off li...