The Garden of Evil goes behind the scenes of the tragic murder of legendary New Zealand yachtsman Sir Peter Blake in 2001. Was it just a robbery gone wrong, or was it connected to Sir Peter's environmental work?
Simon Morris: The Garden of Evil probes the death of yachting legend Sir Peter Blake in 2001. But it starts - dangerously - with an assumption.
Sir Peter was one of the most famous yachtsmen ever. So there has to be more to this than meets the eye.
A mere random killing seems to be unthinkable for director Larry Keating, who spent much of his career making TV documentaries about behind the scenes stories of the America's Cup.
Keating calls in Irish investigative journalist Donal McIntyre, who's already made a documentary himself about Sir Peter called Death of a Hero.
The initial facts are undisputed. Peter Blake retired from ocean racing, and followed his interest in the environment - particularly what was going on in the Amazon basin, here rather clumsily referred to as "the green lungs of the world".
Blake wanted to get people interested in the Amazon - perhaps through a Jacques Cousteau-type TV series.
Blake was particularly concerned about the damage caused by out-of-control Brazilian logging companies. To him, they were borderline criminals, seemingly beyond the reach of the law.
Partly this was because of the sheer size of the Amazon basin and partly because of the notorious political corruption in Brazil.
Peter Blake possibly thought he was protected by his celebrity. He was, as a local reporter described him, the "Pele of yachting", but it didn't save him.
To the shock of the world, he was raided by pirates and died, we were told, trying to protect his crew.
But 20 years after his first report on it, journalist McIntyre returns, hinting darkly about evidence still to come to light.
Along the way, he ropes in some equally sceptical sources, including self-styled "eco-warrior" Pete Bethune.
Bethune had had his own run-ins with shady characters connected with the logging companies. Why wouldn't Blake be targeted too?
But actually, when The Garden of Evil gets over its True Crime instincts, it becomes more interesting.
We meet an Italian environmentalist called Emmanuela Evangelista, who's set up an eco-village in Northern Amazonia, and she shows what can be done if you put the years in.
Coincidentally she arrived there at around the exact time Peter Blake took his fatal trip further south.
There are several front-people to Garden of Evil - as well as Donal McIntyre and Pete Bethune, the narrative is taken by at least three other journalists. And they're keen to investigate the wider story of what's happening in the Amazon.
But director Larry Keating prefers to stay with "Who really killed Sir Peter Blake?" In fact, 20 years ago the pirates were caught and convicted with very little difficulty.
English journo Sam Cowie gets to talk to the apparent ring-leader. After nearly an hour of breathless suspense, we finally hear the voice of the murderer.
And many of the questions posed at the start of the film about the death of Blake do get answered.
…Unlike questions about the wider issues raised in this film - issues that the whole planet has an interest in.
Obviously, it's easier to get a minor career criminal, stuck in a miserable Brazilian jail, to talk than the corrupt business people and politicians whose crimes helped put him there. Not a peep from them in The Garden of Evil, unsurprisingly.
