Fancy watching an overweight, alcoholic Slovenian man swim the length of the Amazon? No, it's not some new reality TV torture porn, but Big River Man, an extraordinary documentary on 50 year old endurance swimmer Martin Strel. Dodging piranhas, crocodiles, snakes and all manner of other hostile fauna, Strel campaigns for a cleaner environment by swimming the world's largest and most polluted rivers from the Yangtze to the Mississippi. It's his World Record for swimming the Amazon that's the subject of John Maringouin's documentary though, and with more than a whiff of Werner Herzog's fascination with the planet's eccentrics it should be well worth a look.
Big River Man is out on UK R2 DVD through Revolver Entertainment on 18th Jan 2010.
DVD Details
Interview with Martin Strel
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