The plot doesn't go down quite like you describe it, but nonetheless it sounds like you're thinking of 1985's "The Emerald Forest."

The only difference from your description seems to be in the circumstances of the son's return, but I won't go into those for fear of spoiling a 30-year-old plot (this way maybe you'll get a little suspense when you see it again). Rest assured, there was no trend in rainforest-tribal-kidnapping movies in the past few decades, so this is pretty definitely the one.

It was quite well received at the time, even screening at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. It was nominated for a few awards, including the charmingly obscure best-poster honor from France's Cesar Awards.

It starred Powers Boothe and marked his triumphant return to fictional South America, after having won an Emmy for playing cult leader Jim Jones in the 1980 telefilm "Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones." I say "fictional" South America because, though "The Emerald Forest" was filmed on location in Brazil, "Guyana Tragedy" was not shot in Guyana at all, but rather in Puerto Rico and Atlanta.

"The Emerald Forest" was also the next directorial project for famed filmmaking weirdo John Boorman after his landmark 1981 film "Excalibur," and another entry into the lost-in-the-forest genre to which he contributed with his more famous 1972 picture "Deliverance."

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