After receiving both the original book and passes to the film I was pleased to see the ever lasting effect a year with natives in Peru can have on a person. It is one thing to be actually in that moment and appreciate what a life changing event is taking place, but it is another to actually continue to live with the effects that it can have on you for decades to come. Perhaps it is a curse to actually become another person with a totally different identy only to return to a world that could never understand your actions and motives while in the moment, but I beleve that Tobias understood the life-long effect that it would have on him, both positive and negative.
Tobias came across, in the book as well as the film, as a man who was longing for something that he didn't quite know what. And until his return 45 years after leaving the tribe I didn't sense any closure on his part for the "family" that he left behind. The "civilized" world's inability to comprehend his actions while there only added to this sense of an unfinished chapter in the original book. The film alone is a beautiful story about a man coming to terms with himself and his enviroment, but with Tobias' book it is a complete journey into one man's quest to find himself. Read the book first to fully appreciate a stunning film.