Presented by the Institute of World Lanugages at the University of Virginia, with an introduction by Jeffrey Grossman.

A band of Spanish conquistadors, led by Pizarro, go up the Amazon in search of gold. As the soldiers battle starvation, Indians, the forces of nature and each other, Don Lope de Aguirre (the self-styled "Wrath of God") is consumed by visions of conquering all of South America and leads a revolt, by Aguirre's megalomania turns the expedition into a death trip.

The film is in German with English subtitles; the introduction in English.