Cinema
Kon-Tiki
Thor Heyerdahl · 1950
Synopsis
The film starts from a thesis: the islands of the South Pacific were settled from Peru rather than from Asia. To put it to the test, Thor Heyerdahl and five companions, Herman Watzinger, Erik Hesselberg, Knut Haugland, Torstein Raaby and Bengt Danielsson, leave Callao in 1947 on a balsa raft, the Kon-Tiki, and let themselves be carried westward for weeks. With no professional operators, they film the crossing themselves, with a single sixteen-millimetre camera.
Context
The film was edited and produced by the Swede Olle Nordemar, and was released in Sweden on 13 January 1950, then in Norway on 13 February. The Nordische Filmtage in Lübeck point out that it was made without a professional cameraman, director or actor. The crossing, from Callao to the atoll of Raroia, in the Tuamotu, lasted one hundred and one days and covered nearly eight thousand kilometres, according to the Thor Heyerdahl Institute. The running time of the film varies according to the prints, from sixty-five to seventy-seven minutes.
Who it is for
A black-and-white documentary of a little over an hour, with commentary, its images shot at sea by the crew themselves.
Prizes and reception
Academy Award for Best Documentary for 1951, officially presented to its editor and producer, Olle Nordemar.
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