Amid the deep greens and dappled sunlight of a cloud forest in Rwanda, a family of mountain gorillas is at leisure and play. Sitting with them is a woman who mimics their movements, pretends to chew leaves and gains the acceptance of the group's dominant silverback. That woman is Dian Fossey.

The remarkable adventure of pioneering primatologist Fossey unfolds in this film directed by Michael Apted and shot mainly in the Rwandan habitat of the mountain gorillas. In a performance that won the Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Actress, Sigourney Weaver portrays Fossey: charismatic, commanding and driven by a single-mindedness that would both be her strength...and perhaps lead to her tragic murder.