Sleeping Sickness

Ebbo Velten works in a sleeping sickness aid project in Cameroon, living with his wife Vera. Their daughter Helen visits from a boarding school in Wetzlar, Germany. Although European aid is generous, there are few patients. When the family decides to return to Europe, Velten stays behind.

A World Health Organization inspector, Alex Nzila, arrives to assess the programme. He finds there is friction with local people who fear being overcharged or robbed before he even reaches the clinic. The tense prelude foreshadows the scrutiny to come.

Upon arrival, Velten cannot be found at the clinic. A woman in labour requires a Caesarean section. Velten arrives just in time to perform the operation and deliver the baby.

The baby girl is Velten's, born from his relationship with the mother. Soon the woman's relatives arrive to celebrate the birth. Velten brusquely refuses to give money to the woman's brother when his 'father-in-law' asks him to help, causing tension with the family.

Velten leads the inspector to the sleeping sickness clinics, where no cases have been reported. The absence of patients prompts questions about the programme's reach and effectiveness.

Velten takes the inspector to see a tourist venture, providing a stark contrast to medical work. The diversion hints at Velten's complex life in the region.

Later Velten, an acquaintance and a guide, take the inspector night-hunting with guns and spotlights. The acquaintance quarrels with Velten and leaves, but Velten and the guide continue the hunt while the inspector sleeps.

The guide returns without Velten, taking the inspector to the river and leaving him there. The inspector is abandoned in the dark, unsure where Velten has gone.

In the morning the guide returns in a dugout canoe to rescue the inspector. A hippopotamus emerges from the jungle in a mysterious way, a moment that underscores the film's sense of veracity and strangeness.

Velten seems to be dead, but the film leaves the fate unresolved. His line 'I have to believe in metamorphoses' hints at a larger symbolic meaning rather than a straightforward death.

The ending leaves viewers with unresolved questions about Velten's fate and the broader implications for aid work in the region. It underscores the film's themes of transformation and ambiguity that persist beyond the hunt.