1888: The Extraordinary Voyage of the Santa Isabel (Spanish: 1888: El Extraordinario Viaje de la Santa Isabel) is a 2005 Venezuelan film based on the book The Mighty Orinoco by Jules Verne. The film premiered at the 2005 Guadalajara International Film Festival. It was the country s submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film in 2005, but was disqualified.

Synopsis

Julio Verne, writer and adventurer, becomes bored with his life and decides to sail down the Amazon. He arrives in South America at the Venezuelan coast, meeting Italian geographer Conde Ermanno Stradelli; Stradelli has a mission from Rome to map the Orinoco. Verne decides to join him, and they gain another late addition: Juan de Kermor. Through the journey, Verne and Stradelli discover that Juan is actually a woman, Juana, who has been searching for a way to travel down the Orinoco looking for her father.

Cast

• Marco Villarubia as Julio Verne
• Kristin Pardo as Juana de Kermor
• Ronnie Nordenflycht as Conde Stradelli
• Elba Escobar as Honorine Verne
• Julio Bustamante as Coronel Kermor

Production

The screenplay was written by Gustavo Michelena, Rafael Arraiz and Alfredo Anzola, based on the Verne story The Mighty Orinoco. The film combines Verne s story, about the character Jeanne de Kermor, with a fictionalized framing narrative of the real Vernes and Count Stradelli being part of the journey.

Oscars selection

The film was chosen as Venezuela s 2005 entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. However, incomplete paperwork led to the entry being disqualified. At the time of its selection, the choice of the CNAC was controversial; the film Secuestro Express by Jonathan Jakubowicz was also eligible for nomination and was much more successful both nationally and internationally. Jakubowicz criticized the choice not to nominate his film, which is about kidnapping and gangs in Venezuela, saying that it was overtly political because his film was artistically superior. Anzola did not comment on the artistic quality of either film, but said that Jakubowicz, a relative newcomer to the industry at the time, was upset because he wanted his first feature film to receive a nomination and that he would be calmer with more experience. Jakubowicz was forced to leave Venezuela because of Secuestro Express after receiving threats from then-President Hugo Chávez. Ultimately, no submission was accepted from Venezuela in 2005.

Year	2005
ReleaseDate	2005-04-15
RuntimeMins	95
RuntimeStr	1h 35min
Plot	“1888: The Extraordinary Voyage of The Santa Isabel” is a whimsical adventure fantasy about a tired Jules Verne, fleeing from Paris and a bored wife, who joins Italian explorer Stradelli in an expedition on the Orinoco river. Alon…
Directors	Alfredo Anzola
Writers	Alfredo Anzola, Gustavo Michelena
Stars	Marco Villarubia, Kristin Pardo, Ronnie Nordenflycht
Produced by	Alfredo Anzola,Renny Barrios,José Ernesto Martínez,Laura Oramas
Music by	Alfonso Montes
Cinematography by	Michael Montes
Film Editing by	Fermín Branger
Art Department	Renny Barrios,Laura Romero
Sound Department	Gabriel Delgado Petersen,Gustavo González
Thanks	Margarita Cadenas
Genres	Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Countries	Venezuela
Languages	Spanish
ImDbRating	5
ImDbRatingVotes	28
Keywords	italian,river,jules verne