Les Sables du Kalahari

1965 was a very rich year for adventure survival films from the African wilderness (The Flight of the Phoenix, The Naked Prey). Sands of Kalahari is the least known, the strangest, and perhaps the best of them all. Six people crash a plane into the desert. This time, however, the focus is not on the heroes' efforts to save themselves and get the plane working again (as in The Flight of the Phoenix), but on their survival in the desert, which gradually turns them into savages. The main setting is the territory of the fearsome baboons, with whom they begin to share a rocky oasis, but where there is not enough food for everyone. Then we just watch social Darwinism in action. Of course, the film wants to be an allegory about the line between civility and savagery, and it's a little too literal in places, but it's extremely engagingly made for its time, even for today's audience. All the exterior scenes were honestly shot on location without the need for inserts from nature documentaries. That is, in the natural habitat of the baboons, who are believably set in a shared shot with the actors (or rather, the actors are set in a shot with the baboons). An unusually unsentimental and depressing adventure film that manages to keep you in constant suspense about what happens next. The final confrontation between the two alpha males is a must-see. (27/12/2017)