Heart of Darkness, from Conrad's novel to Cinema
- Planet Claire
- Sep 28
- 3 min read
The compelling and beautiful tale by Joseph Conrad, already adapted for the screen in Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece Apocalypse Now (1979), returns in a Brazilian animated film, No Coração das Trevas by Rogério Nunes, presented at the Annecy Festival, the most important international animation film festival.
The beautiful tale by the great writer
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) – Heart of Darkness (1899)
The cinematic masterpiece by
Francis Ford Coppola (1939– ) – Apocalypse Now (1979), with a masterful Marlon Brando.
The animated film by the Brazilian animator, illustrator, and director
Rogério Nunes – Coração das Trevas (2025)
reimagined in the horror genre, presented in June 2025 at the Annecy Festival, the world’s most important animation film festival.
Conrad was a Polish exile who embarked very young as a sailor. He traveled through the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Far East, and Africa. Though his native language was Polish, he learned French and then English, which became his literary language. He was a great writer, one of the giants of literary modernism. The themes of his novels are alienation, colonialism, and the dark nature of man.The storytelling in this tale is compelling and beautiful, with ambiguous atmospheres and multiple perspectives.
Heart of Darkness, the tale
It is a moral and philosophical reflection on colonialism and human nature.
Published in 1899, it was inspired by Conrad’s experience in the Belgian Congo, a colony notorious for the atrocities of its colonial regime.
An anonymous narrator (never named, creating the effect of a story within a story) recounts an episode heard on a ship anchored on the Thames from a sailor called Marlow.
On a European trading vessel, Marlow traveled up the Congo River to recover Kurtz, a colonial agent of great fame who was reportedly ill or isolated.
During the journey upriver, Marlow witnesses the devastation and brutality of colonialism: destroyed villages, enslaved natives, violence in the name of profit.
Kurtz, once found, proves to be a charismatic yet terrifying figure: initially described as an idealist, he has been consumed by his thirst for power and ivory. He lives among the natives, who worship him as a god, and has crossed every moral boundary.
It is not only the “darkness” of colonised Africa, but the dark side of the human soul itself, embodied by Kurtz and by the entire European colonial project.
At the end, Kurtz, dying, utters the words: “The horror! The horror!” before passing away. Back in Europe, Marlow lies to Kurtz’s fiancée (who symbolises Europe’s illusions of civilisation, progress, and morality, unaware of the real atrocities), telling her that his last words were her name, sparing her the truth.
Apocalypse Now, the film
Apocalypse Now (1979) by Francis Ford Coppola is a modern adaptation of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
Conrad’s late 19th-century colonial Africa becomes, for Coppola, war-torn Vietnam in the 1960s–70s. The Congo River is transposed into the fictional Nùng River (in reality the Mekong).
The river journey into the unknown is also an inner journey into the darkness of the human soul; for Coppola, the Vietnamese river becomes a descent into the madness of war and the corruption of the spirit. Each stage of the voyage reveals increasing brutality, absurdity, and alienation.
Conrad’s sailor Marlow becomes, in Coppola’s film, U.S. Army Special Services Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen), tasked with eliminating Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), an American officer once a model of discipline and courage, who has become a charismatic and ruthless leader commanding a tribe in Cambodia.
Kurtz represents the collapse of civilisation and the lure of absolute power, with the loss of all morality.
Marlon Brando’s Kurtz also speaks of horror, in a famous scene (the Horror Speech), emphasising the direct connection to Conrad’s novella.
No Coração das Trevas, animated film by Rogério Nunes
The latest adaptation by Brazilian illustrator, animator, and director Rogério Nunes sets the action in a dystopian urban future in Brazil, highlighting the themes of urban inequality, environmental degradation, and social exclusion. The journey unfolds by water, through canals, favelas, and dumps, moving away from Rio’s tourist areas.
Marlow is a policeman tasked with finding Captain Kurtz, who has disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
Kurtz is portrayed as a paramilitary/messianic leader, head of a group whose followers believe him to be the reincarnation of Exu, a deity of the Umbanda religion. This aspect introduces spiritual and mythological elements absent from the original text, while still addressing the themes of charisma, power, and the cult of personality.
Comments