The Melbourne International Film Festival will open with the world premiere of a new thriller from Greg Wolf Creek McLean – based on the true story of Yossi Ghinsberg, an Israeli backpacker who survived three weeks alone in the Amazon when the adventure of a lifetime went horribly wrong.
Jungle, based on Ghinsberg's 1985 memoir Back From Tuichi, was shot on Mount Tambourine in Queensland and in the wilds of Colombia.
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Trailer: Jungle
A trickster guide leads a group of friends into the Bolivian jungle.
Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe stars as the young Israeli adventurer, Australian actors Alex Russell and Joel Jackson play his travelling companions, and German actor Thomas Kretschmann plays a mysterious Austrian who claims to be able to lead them to a city of gold, but ends up leading them only into despair.
McLean, who is in Los Angeles preparing a second season of the TV adaptation of Wolf Creek, said shooting in Colombia was "a huge challenge".
![Daniel Radcliffe as Yossi Ghinsberg, a young Israeli who becomes lost in the Amazon, in <i>Jungle</i>. The film will ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20170717100019im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/q/a/r/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwqaky.png/1499795173623.jpg)
"We needed to find raging rivers, lush jungles and lost villages, but when we first scouted we were on the tail end of a years-long drought so the countryside looked like the Outback."
McLean and his producers toyed with filming in Fiji or far north Queensland, but by the time they were ready to roll the rains had returned to Colombia and the rivers were in full flow.
"So much so that we returned to our location the day after we'd been shooting with Daniel and Alex to find it was now 20 feet underwater. The river had risen that much over night and washed whole villages, trees and farm animals upstream."
McLean said he was attracted to the story because at its heart is "a character who simply refused to give up, against incredible odds, and who via this desperate struggle to escape a hostile environment discovered a kind of spiritual awakening – really, through suffering."
![Ghinsberg (Radcliffe) with fellow travellers Kevin Gale (Alex Russell), Marcus Stamm (Joel Jackson) and Karl Ruprechter ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20170717100019im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/q/a/r/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwqaky.png/1497456887298.jpg)
Ghinsberg, who now lives in Byron Bay, first took his remarkable story to Hollywood in 1990, but every producer he met wanted to change aspects of the tale. In the process, he says, "they were destroying the true story and the respect that I have for the other characters. So, I left Hollywood and didn't want to return."
The version McLean tells is far more indebted to his actual experiences.
"It's not about adventure, it's about transformation," Ghinsberg said. "The adventure is the background. It's about the human spirit and the discovery of self. It's about friendship and the tragedy that happens when friendships collapse, and it's about the beauty of friendship."
And for MIFF creative director Micelle Carey, it's about having a gripping suspense drama to open the 66th festival on August 3.
"We couldn't be more delighted to have Jungle," Carey said. "Greg McLean's new film is bold, hugely entertaining and a thrilling ride. It's an impressive showcase of Australian and international talent behind and in front of the camera."
The Melbourne International Film Festival runs August 3-20. The Age is a festival media partner.
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