It purports to be a documentary about "Sir Hubert Winstead" of London on an expedition to the Belgian Congo, and depicts a tribe of gorilla-worshipping women encountered by the explorer.

[2] Although marketed under the pretense of being ethnographic, the premise was a fabrication, leading the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association to retract any involvement.

[2][4] The film starts with a text introduction, explaining the purported documentary background, then shows life aboard ship before it docks at Mombasa.

Along the journey, they mention the finding of a tortoise with an odd, wing-like shell and large scales that they christen a "tortorillo", just before one of the dogs they brought with was purportedly killed by its venomous bite.

[13][non-primary source needed] In partnership with Something Weird Video, Kino Classics released a 4K restoration of the film on Blu-ray Disc on January 5, 2021.

[14] Film critic Mordaunt Hall wrote in The New York Times that the film "is a loose assemblage of the usual African travel scenes, many of which are spoiled by extraordinarily bad photography," that "the screen is a miserable blur for minutes at a time," that "the scenes with gorillas last about ten minutes and are not at all convincing," but noted that "the trapping of a leopard, the capture of a giant python and a hippopotamus hunt might be genuinely interesting.

"[16] A review from the Houston Chronicle called Ingagi “an effort to obtain money under false pretenses and a deliberate propagation of fabrications in the name of science.

[10] The 1937 film Love Life of a Gorilla likely borrows footage from Ingagi, as contemporary plot descriptions mention a character named "Colonel Hubert Winstead".

In 1947, Charlie Gemora announced his plans to direct and star in a jungle adventure movie that contemporary newspapers described as a sequel of Ingagi.