Big River Man (15)
- Consumer Advice: Contains strong language
- Run time: 1 hour 41 mins
- Genre: Documentary
- Release date: 4th September 2009
- Starring: Martin Strel, Borut Strel, Matthew Mohlke
- Directed by: John Maringouin
- Distributor: Revolver Entertainment
Plot Synopsis
Martin is an endurance swimmer who swims rivers – the Mississippi, the Danube and the Yangtze prior to the Amazon – to highlight their pollution to the world. Martin is also a rather overweight horse-burger loving Slovenian in his fifties, who drinks two bottles of red wine a day... even when swimming.
In February 2007 Martin Strel began an insane attempt to be the first person to swim the entire length of the world’s most dangerous river, the Amazon. The Fish Man, as he was called by the local tribes, almost died in the process several times. Towards the end of his marathon ordeal his blood pressure was at heart attack level, his entire body full of subcutaneous larvae and besieged by dehydration, diarrhoea and exhaustion.
The film follows Martin, his son Borut and navigator Matthew as they travel 3,375 miles in 66 days. During this epic journey Martin suffered from blisters, sunburn, exotic stomach illness, all the while trying to avoid piranhas, anacondas, crocodiles, alligators, and man eating Bull Sharks.
Director John Maringouin set out to make an environmentally aware documentary about an eccentric, larger-than-life Slovenian swimmer. He ended up journeying deep into the oppressively remote Amazonia, following Martin and his team as they descended into a nightmare of illness and insanity.