a film by Barbet Schroeder
When Viviane, a chic diplomat's wife, meets an intriguing adventurer and his hippie friends in the wilds of Papua New Guinea different worlds collide. The group, led by enigmatic visionary Gaetan, convince Viviane to join their expedition in search of a mysterious uncharted valley which they believe to be Paradise. Their journey becomes a quest for origins.
Viviane is an uncomplicated young woman married to the French Consul in Melbourne. Her interest in native artefacts leads her to Papua New Guinea in search of the near-extinct Bird of Paradise feathers, which she plans to send back for sale in Paris boutiques. At the coastal town of Lae she meets Olivier, a young adventurer who is about to leave with some friends on an expedition into bush country. Gaetan, the head of the expedition, reveals his secret goal is to discover an unknown valley in the phantom regions of the island, which even on recent maps is just a blank spot annotated "Obscured by cloud". Only the natives suspect its existence but do not dare to explore it, for it is there that the gods live.
Despite her initial misgivings, Viviane joins the expedition to find her feathers. She wavers between doubt and fascination, hesitates about continuing and gradually discovers other visions of life outside her own. Her exposure to the lush environment, Papuan rites and instinctual love, pushes her further than her companions. As the search continues into the unexplored regions, the horses are abandoned and the expedition is stripped to the essentials. At the point of exhaustion, with return impossible, the mists clear and they see a valley, but not in this world.
Barbet Schroeder's striking second feature, a cult classic from 1972, famously features the wondrous soundtrack by Pink Floyd.
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