it was incredible because it was a real story of a group of scientists - anthropologists i think - who decided to go to papua new guinea with the goal of knowing the place and inhabitants and of knowing an unmapped area of the island.
in 1959, when it was shot, some places and rivers didn't even have a name. when they got to the coast they were quite well received by the villagers, headhunters rather violent in their daily life. they were there for the rituals and filmed everything. the communications was hard, and the way of life was extremely hard and very primitive. some villagers didn't yet use iron tools!
but their task was to go to a completely unknown region. and it took them seven excruciating months to do that. in very high altitudes, between malaria, injuries, deaths they eventualy got out of the map because in the interior no villager would help them. by accident, they reach the other side of the island and consider their work done.
it was really really interesting to see a discovery happening in front of our eyes, in the 20th century. sort of what our ancestors did when they arrived to new places. the beggining looked a bit fake, the narrator was too dramatic i think, but the real story was as real as possible, with the food disappearing in the river, and people dying out of tiredness...
i just loved it! i believe it won an oscar as well.