The 5th Monkey

The 5th Monkey
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Éric Rochat
Written by	Éric Rochat Jacques Zibi (novel)
Produced by	Menahem Golan
Starring	Ben Kingsley Silvia De Carvalho Mika Lins Vera Fischer
Cinematography	Gideon Porath
Edited by	Alain Jakubowicz Fabien D. Tordjmann
Music by	Robert O. Ragland
Production company	21st Century Film Corporation
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	October 5, 1990(1990-10-05)
Running time	93 minutes
Countries	United States Brazil
Language	English

The 5th Monkeyis a Brazilian-American 1990drama filmdirected and written byÉric Rochatand starringBen Kingsley.The film was based on the novelLe Cinquieme Singeby Jacques Zibi.The Cannon GroupfounderMenahem Golanproduced via his21st Century Film Corporation,following the demise of Cannon.

The original music score was composed byRobert O. Ragland.

Plot

Cunda (Kingsley) lives deep in the Brazilianrainforestand is intent on making enough money so he can marry a widow in his village. However, his trade - capturing snakes for scientists - pays very little money, and he is in direct competition with other suitors.

One day, Cunda is bitten by asnake,and he crawls to the river to recover. While going through the agonizing recovery, he has an hallucination of four chimpanzees sitting in the river. Recovered, he returns home and finds the four chimpanzees waiting for him, and his efforts to shoo them away fail. Knowing that chimpanzees are not native toBrazil,he decides that they are a kind of supernatural gift for him. Believing this, he decides to take them to "the city" to sell them.

The journey isn't easy from the start; he discovers that he can't tie them on a rope and drag them, and the only way is to coax them. They stumble into a gold-panning camp, where Cunda is forced to work in order to pay off an old debt. When one of the monkeys is taken as payment, Cunda must figure how to retrieve the monkey and escape. Later, he, the monkeys and the adults of a village arekidnappedby mercenaries. Cunda and the monkeys escape, along with a village woman who refuses to leave his side. Arriving at a small town, a confusing sequence results in one of the monkeys disappearing, and Cunda becoming the servant of the local rich woman who has taken it upon herself to take care of the monkeys. Cunda now has to solve these two problems, and deal with the fact of thevillagewoman's attraction to him plus his growing fondness of the monkeys.

Cast

• Ben Kingsleyas Cunda
• Silvia De Carvalho as Maria
• Mika Lins as Octavia
• Vera Fischeras Mrs. Watts

External links

• The 5th MonkeyatIMDb
• The 5th MonkeyatRotten Tomatoes
• The 5th MonkeyatAllMovie