This may be the finest film I have seen in years. Four hours and I wanted more. The story, characters, script, photography, acting, history are so artfully done, it is hard to imagine how to have made it better (or shorter). The Industrial Revolution had yet to reach Prussia, but in the midst of this backward village, a romantic and scientific mind emerges, who becomes our hero. Everything appears to be historically accurate with a bit of fantasy thrown in to bring brightness to the basic dreariness. How does Jakob become proficient in Spanish and English? Not important. But how does he become a master of Amazonian native languages and carry on a correspondence with the great Alexander von Humboldt! Well that's just a special filmmaker's dream we accept with all the mundane reality. All in all a wonderful film.
