Unknown: Cave of Bones Review: A Surprisingly Emotional and Engaging Experience

Unknown: Cave of Bones Review: Directed by Mark Munnucci, this documentary film goes on an exciting adventure with Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger in South Africa as he and his team try to prove that the skeletal remains that he has found in the world’s oldest graveyard do not belong to human beings but to fascinating creatures who practices a very thorough and complex form of burial rituals. The film has a runtime of 93 minutes.

Unknown: Cave of Bones Plot

Unknown is a four-part documentary series that brings forth the incredible stories of different people across different fields of work who are doing their best for their work and for society as a whole. The stories all venture down unexpected and unknown paths that push the boundaries of knowledge and bring forth incredible stories which will boggle your mind!

Unknown: Cave of Bones follows Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger and his team, who try to prove that the skeletal remains that they discovered in the oldest burial ground in South Africa belonged to small-brained ape-like creatures who might have practised a complex burial process. The discovery and the subsequent proof of burial techniques have the ability to change everything that we know about hominid evolution and the origins of belief.

Unknown: Cave of Bones Review

The documentary film, narrated by Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger, who talks about Homo Naledi as his team goes down into tight caves, will give you goosebumps. For the claustrophobic section of the audience, it’s also going to be an uncomfortable watch as the men and women rope down these dark, rocky terrains into the unknown abyss, which hardly has any space for anyone to squeeze through.

These dark rocky caves that you have to crawl through and pulley down are as much of a character in the movie as are the scientists and archaeologists. They also have an interesting and spell-binding story to tell and have so much history to them that even before the archaeologists get into the very interesting story, you are left to wonder about the mysteries that lie within the walls, some of which are yet to be discovered.

Moving on, Unknown: Cave of Bones is about the Homo naledi, an early ancestor of human beings discovered for the first time in 2013 in the Rising Star Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, dating back to around Middle Pleistocene 335,000–236,000 years ago. Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger takes us on a journey, and as we see footage of the myriad discoveries in the cave system from 2013 to 2022, he also discusses how the naledi are and what their communities might have comprised of.

The documentary is a mixture of adrenaline rush and emotion, the latter of which comes out of nowhere and catches you unawares. At one point, I found myself tearing up a bit from the discussion surrounding how these primitive creates, so close to us in so many ways, might have felt while going down this dark and perilous cave with the help of only their hands and feet, only to say farewell to their dead loved ones. The background score in these moments also does not help and goes so well with this profound discussion of love and loss that it really does strike a chord somewhere.

Human beings are such complex creatures with so many different thoughts and feelings working in tandem. And the Homo naledi, although with a smaller brain than us (that is brought up in the show quite a lot), will leave you in awe with their ability to think deeper than you could’ve imagined. Of course, there are critics who would (and, apparently, do) say otherwise. However, the evidence presented to us viewers might prove otherwise, and you will believe that our (probable) ancestors, with smaller brains and whatnot, were capable to group work and so much love and empathy.

Also Read: Unknown The Lost Pyramid Review: A Rush to Discover Forgotten Ancient Secrets

I think the way the creators have made the documentary is quite interesting – you learn at first about the Homo naledi and the cave system to intrigue you and suck you in, and then they go into Berger’s discovery, his personal victory and everything else that comes out. It makes us sympathise with the creatures that are being discovered and the human beings who are doing the discovery. There’s a moment wherein Berger is able to make a dream of his come true, and as a viewer, you, too, are filled with happiness seeing him happy as well.

Something less that personally left me baffled is how the camera crew was able to go down these very narrow passages while taking videos while going down into the abyss. Honestly, hats off. I think most people would be very scared of the mere thought of going down, let alone with a camera in their hands! The pictorial representation and the animated videos are really helpful and add to the watching experience as well.

Unknown: Cave of Bones Review: Final Thoughts

In the end, Unknown: Cave of Bones is a really interesting and insightful documentary that will, most importantly, make you want to investigate more about our once-forgotten ancestors. It’s an emotional and hopeful dip into the pool that is history and the curious case of early “humans” who had the ability to have deeper thought processes than we could’ve imagined.

Unknown: Cave of Bones is streaming on Netflix.

Also Read: Mushoku Tensei Season 2 Episode 2 Review: The Forest in the Dead of the Night