Western Engineer from capitalist, consumer driven society, who makes energy from a huge construction that tames the river, goes into (his subconcious?) rainforest with seven year old son -- which could mean his soul, his imagination, his responsibility -- and this son is abducted by the indigenous tribe. Here known as 'Invisible People' -- as they might as well be, their culture makes no impact against the context of the western technological and cultural influx.
So when the engineer returns to Amazonia ten years later, and discovers that his son is one of the children of the forest -- well he's had a change of heart about destroying the forest and the culture of which it is an inseperable part. He's become one of them at heart... or at least, that is the kind of wish we are fulfilling by watching the film, and which is helped along by the idealistic title of the film, The Emerald Forest.
I'm a sucker for the sentiment myself sometimes. My favorite Star Trek episode is the one where Captain Kirk visits a planet that looks just like America's plains Indians, with teepees and beautiful squaws and unspoiled plains. It's a very appealing image. Very anti-capitalist, communal and socialist and closely associated with the environment. East Germans loved the Indians during the Soviet Era, they made a lot of Westerns from the Indian's perspective. And then people in the Czech Republic have 'Indian Clubs', where they all get together in the country and dress, and act as authentically as possible, like their ideal of American Indians.
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