The Lost City of Z(ed) is an adaptation of David Grann’s highly acclaimed non-fiction novel about the historical British officer, Percival “Percy” Fawcett, and his zealous determination to find an ancient civilization in the Amazonian jungles. The film is methodically linear and very much committed to the plot of its source material.
We are introduced to Percy Fawcett participating in a stag hunt in Ireland where he is stationed. Percy’s superb physical stamina and his intellectual prowess in problem solving are on display here. Despite the praise and esteem this affords Percy, military honorariums and respect from people of high rank and social class elude him – he is the only officer at banquet without a medal. One high-ranking officer interprets Percy’s social plight as a symptom of his “unfortunate choice of ancestry.” Apparently, his father was constantly inebriated.
Percy’s fortune begins to change when the Royal Geographical Society approaches him with the task of mapping the actual border between Brazil and Bolivia to help the two countries avoid war with each other. Completing the task would afford Percy the social accolades he desires. His mapping work takes him and his crew deep into Amazonian jungle where they encounter its natural beauties and perils. Shooting these scenes in 35mm with traditional film cameras added visual edge to their journey. The men are successful in their journey and become the first (white) men to map the inner jungles of the Amazon. However, this accomplishment is eclipsed by Percy’s discovery of a sophisticated piece of pottery which suggests that an ancient people once lived, or even still live, there.
Oddly, Percy is entirely uninterested with the fame his ventures bring him. The prospect of finding this city, which he names Z, captivates his imagination and leads him to put together another team to search for the city. The film’s narrative quickens in pace and covers a time-span of twenty years wherein Percy returns to the Amazonian jungle with no success in finding they city, serves in WWI as a colonel, and makes one last attempt to find “Z,” this time accompanied by his son, Jack.
The film doesn’t provide us with a satisfactory reason as to why Percy wants to find this city: at moments it seems that he wants to prove to the “civilized, white” world that sophistication and human flourishing exists outside of their European paradigms and at other moments it seems that his desire to establish an inviolable legacy for his family’s name.
At first, this lack of character motivation frustrated me. Despite the intoxicating visuals of the film, the search for reasons to find Z fatigued me and left me ready to give up on the notion of the city of Z with some of Percy’s crew. However, my disposition changed after one of the WWI scenes.
In one of the fortified trenches, a troop of British soldiers huddles around a small table where a Russian fortuneteller interprets Percy’s destiny. Yet, it’s not their conversation that appeased my frustration with the storyline; it’s the awe and wonder on the soldiers’ faces as they watch their colonel tearfully express his desire to find the city that got me. While the reasoning behind his pursuit eludes those around Percy, the way Percy’s profound passion shapes him merits the respect and admiration of his men. Similarly, the viewers aren’t given a straightforward reason for why he wants to find Z, but we see that this passion invigorates him and makes him open to learn from the indigenous people of Amazonia – something most of his contemporaries scoff at.
We see the same thing in the way people of faith are attracted to the journeys of their saints and sages. While their reasons for committing to the faith may confound us, their stories still inspire us to live a certain way. Often times we obsess over achieving goals and having logical reasons to justify why we need to achieve them. The Lost City of Z denies us of that, and forces us to gaze into the mysterious, transformative and worthwhile process of the journey itself.