House of the Tiger King

David Flamholc, Sweden/UK, 2004, 105 minutes

Two filmmakers seek funding for a documentary: it's a tall tale of discovering lost Incan cities, which they'll need thousands of pounds to make. Pragmatic and highly impatient, they fabricate a vital clue to the city's mystery location. It doesn't convince the funders, but for reasons best known to themselves, they raid their piggy banks and are suddenly in Peru following those very same made-up clues.

House of the Tiger King is a fascinating attempt to blend traditional documentary with hefty helpings of fiction. Indeed director David Flamholc and travel writer Tahir Shah share such conspiratorial chumminess that even as they row dramatically on screen it appears to be merely another in-joke staged for the sake of building a good story. Willing us to confusion, Flamholc elsewhere explains that footage currently on screen was faked to attract funders - this confession itself merely part of a weird part travelogue, part fantasy narration.

Shah may be real but his explorer credentials are also a little shaky – despite having travelled through exotic cultures writing numerous books, he seems incapable of attending to such trivial research as consulting maps, researching basic archaeology or even just checking the weather. The upside of such ineptitude is the fact that it does mean our heroes are continuously battling the odds, chasing false leads, and meeting colourful characters aplenty. Throw in a few soaring mountain shots and all cliché boxes are firmly ticked.

And yet, while the film entirely fails as an adventure piece (and the inclusion of one particularly batty Vietnam vet guide seems either to be a naff joke or an act of staggeringly poor guide choice), Flamholc's playful twisting of the documentary genre proves thoroughly compelling.

And the film does show one truly weird culture clash: the Peruvian guides vs the Pot Noodles... who’s your money on?!

Review by Nicola Osborne
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2005