Cobra Verde  Cobra Verde (also known as Slave Coast) is a 1987 German drama film directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski, in their fifth and final collaboration. It was based upon Bruce Chatwin's 1980 novel "The Viceroy of Ouidah". The film depicts the life of a fictional slave trader. It was filmed on location in Brazil, Colombia and Ghana. In 1880s, Francisco Manoel da Silva (Klaus Kinski) is a debauched Brazilian rancher who has reluctantly gone to work at a gold mining company after his ranch is ruined by drought. When he discovers that he is being financially exploited, he murders his boss and goes on the lam to pursue a career as an outlaw. He becomes the notorious Cobra Verde (Green Snake), the most vicious bandit of the "sertão". In a visit to town, da Silva encounters and subdues by force of character an escaping slave, an act that impresses wealthy sugar baron Dom Octávio Coutinho (José Lewgoy). Dom Coutinho, unaware that he is dealing with the legendary bandit, hires da Silva to oversee the slaves on his sugar plantation. When da Silva subsequently impregnates all three of the Dom's daughters, the sugar baron is furious, but the situation becomes even more complicated when he discovers that da Silva is none other than the infamous Cobra Verde. As punishment, rather than kill him or have him prosecuted, Dom Coutinho decides to send da Silva on the impossible mission of re-opening the slave trade with Western Africa. The bandit is aware he is likely to be killed in Africa, but accepts anyway. He travels by sea to Dahomey, West Africa (present-day Benin), where he must negotiate with the fearsome King Bossa Ahadee of Dahomey (played by His Honour the Omanhene Nana Agyefi Kwame II of Nsein, a village north of the city of Axim, Ghana). Amazingly, da Silva succeeds in convincing the King to exchange slaves for new rifles. He takes over Elmina Castle and takes Taparica (King Ampaw), sole survivor of the previous expedition, for a partner. They begin operating the slave trade across the Atlantic to Brazil. Soon, however, the fickle king has them captured and brought before him. The King accuses da Silva of various crimes that he has no knowledge of, including poisoning the King's greyhound, and sentences him to death.