German Drama Cobra Verde

Cobra Verde is a 1987 German drama film based upon Bruce Chatwin's 1980 novel, The Viceroy of Ouidah. The film depicts the life of a fictional slave trader named Francisco Manoel da Silva (known as 'Cobra Verde') who is played by the prolific German actor Klaus Kinski. Directed by Werner Herzog, Cobra Verde was an ambitious project, with filming locations in Brazil, Colombia and Ghana. While Cobra Verde was probably the least well-received of the five collaborations between Herzog and Kinski, it was still something of a critical success, with many reviewers hailing it as a masterful adaptation of Chatwin's novel, and despite its flaws, something of an artistic triumph. Most profoundly, Klaus Kinski died four years after the release of Cobra Verde, and the film would stand as the last of his acclaimed collaborations with director Werner Herzog.