Gorillas in the Mist

Film Review: the moving real story of Dian Fossey needs to be rediscovered

By Alberto Sclaverano

The 1988 American biographical drama adventure film Gorillas in the Mist is based on the life (and mysterious death) of primatologist Dian Fossey (1932-1985). The movie is made in a way that makes it accessible to teenagers: it offers a moving portrayal of a great female figure, a woman who will always be remembered as a key figure in XX Century primatology.

The film is inspired by the book of the same title written by Fossey herself (Gorillas in the Mist, published in 1983, two years before her assassination). Directed by Michael Apted, the film stars Sigourney Weaver as the main character. It won the actress a Golden Globe and a nomination for Best Actress at the 1989 Academy Awards. Mrs. Weaver portrayal of Fossey is often quoted as the best performance in the famous actress career (who will always be associated by the public with her iconic role of Ellen Ripley in the Alien sci-fi horror saga).

As a scientist, Fossey spent a large part of her life (between 1966 and 1985) studying the mountain gorillas in the forest of Rwanda. She was also a conservationist who campaigned harshly against illegal hunting, poaching and excessive tourism in gorillas’ habitats.

Fossey was brutally murdered in December 1985 at her camp. The killer was never identified, but it is now accepted that it was almost certain a poaching-related homicide, possibly with the collusion of the local authorities.

The film chooses not to show the graphic details of the murder, and instead focuses on the previous event in Fossey’s life, especially what led her to come to Rwanda to study the gorillas, and the numerous battles she fought to protect them and their environment, frequently clashing with the government and local groups.

It has a clear educational element, especially concerning the importance of protecting the environment, preserving biodiversity, and defending the rights of animals like gorillas to exist in

their habitats and not be exploited by corrupt local governments and avid tourists and hunters. As Fossey discovered during her years of work in Africa, the death of gorillas often came from a combination of these dimensions.

Beautifully shot and accompanied by the effective original score composed by Maurice Jarre (who was awarded the Golden Globe and nominated for the Oscar), Gorillas in the Mist is less

an essay film and more a bio-pic in the traditional Hollywood style. But his pedagogic and timely messages are indisputable, especially in these days and age, when the increasing severity of the climate crisis is accelerating the destruction of local habitats like the ones populated by mountain gorillas.

Today’s laws against illegal poaching are better, for certain aspects, than in Fossey’s time, and her work contributed to the awareness about the danger posed by these types of acts; she literally paid with her life for that.

But if we cannot stop the climate crisis and the damage that it produces in areas like Sub-Saharan Africa, the disappearance of species like mountain gorillas will become a real possibility in the

future. Now, there is already an increasing number of wild species whose survival is threatened because of climate change. Great apes like gorillas make no exception. The most recent projections indicate that they could lose up to 94% of their suitable habitat by 2050 due to the destruction of the ecosystem caused by climate change. If we permit that this happens, Dian Fossey’s sacrifice will have been in vain.