A.C.E. Writers

“The Five Lost Days” by William Petrick

Review by Barbara Ehrentreu

What happens when a documentary film crew comes to Belize to film a reclusive research scientist and her guru, the curandero of the village of San Antonio, on the border between Belize and Guatemala? Add to this that the crew only has five days scheduled to film and they must overcome hardships created by the jungle habitat. Will the director be able to stay separate from his subject as he has done all his life, seeing it only through a camera lens? Or will he succumb to the lure of the jungle and lose his objectivity? Unfortunately for the director this might be his final film shoot as he must cope with one drawback after another in his pursuit of a viable film.

Michael Burns, the director, begged for more time so he would be able to film at his usual meticulous pace, but his TV network wants everything done this minute. Already worried that the conditions will hinder his film, Burns and his crew arrive in Belize, spend one night in a run down hotel, and find themselves, the next morning in two dugout canoes piloted by an ancient native and his grandson. When their gear survives the rapids of the muddy winding river to the research scientist’s home, Burns feels the shoot will work after all. But he didn’t figure on leaving the videotape they needed back on the opposite shore. After he meets Kelly, the research scientist looking for miracle cures for diseases from the native plant life, he thinks she might have gone native, but he wants to film the currandero, so he plays along and still the consummate director, he films her with the scant amount of film they have. His crew carries the gear and they embark on a hike through the jungle. But when Burns gets separated from the rest of his party while they are exploring a set of caves, and he injures himself, he starts to rethink the whole thing.

Told in several points of view, this is the story of the enlightenment of a modern thinking man as he learns more about the jungle and its healing plants as well as its dangers, an examination of documentary filmmaking, and a look into the lives of native Mayan people today. The reader feels so much a part of the story. The heat and thirst, the dirt roads alternating between parched and muddy since rain happens spontaneously with no warning seem very real. The overwhelming beauty of this under developed area holding exquisite rainforests combined with the raw emotions of both the crew and Kelly and her husband Frank forms the backdrop to the story as the tension increases urging the reader to turn the pages. Each short chapter begins with the Mayan name for a healing plant and its uses. The idea of healing is woven throughout the story, as is the Mayan belief, which is seen through the currandero’s use of the spirit world as he heals. Mr. Petrick also brings in the juxtaposition of the modern world with boom boxes blaring in the tiny town of small huts with dirt floors, and the violence of the border skirmishes from Guatemalan soldiers and their modern weapons. Within this mix of hardship and distress Burns finds himself inexplicably drawn to Kelly though she is a married woman and he is in a relationship himself.

Mr. Petrick is a documentary filmmaker himself, so he brings a great deal of authenticity to the process. To his credit this is not the kind of book this reader is used to reading, but it was impossible not to become involved with this fast moving and at times frightening story. Will the crew finish the movie in the few days they have? Pick up this book. I guarantee you won’t be able to put it down.