Parents' Guide to Lost in the Jungle

This entrancing documentary weaves together multiple narrative layers to tell a story as complex and veiled as the Amazon jungle itself. Lost in the Jungle is ostensibly a documentary about the four Colombian children who survived a small-plane crash and subsisted in the jungle on their own for 40 days. But layered into this tale are many of the complexities of Colombian society, the colonialization and mistreatment of Indigenous populations, widespread domestic violence against Indigenous women and girls, and the ancestral connection to nature and mystical spirituality that helped save the four children's lives.

The military soldiers and Indigenous men who formed separate rescue teams begin with a mutual distrust based on decades of fighting between the state and guerilla groups and narco-traffickers, and an even longer history of Indigenous exploitation, exclusion, and abuse. The story of how that mistrust slowly erodes for a common goal is captivating. The backstory of the children's abusive father/stepfather is handled with a similarly gentle touch, pieced together through extensive interviews. The children's own time in the jungle is recreated through magical animated sketches, voiced over by the kids themselves. Their story, and the larger ones recounted here, make for surprisingly gripping on-screen material.