We travel by train from the westernmost point of mainland Europe up to Portugal's only national park, the Peneda-Gerês, and from lively Porto to the Spanish border in the northeast. The train takes you from the blue sea to the green Douro Valley, from the urban metropolis to the scorching heat of the deserted hinterland.
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Over 196 bridges and through 55 tunnels, the Bernina Express fights its way from Switzerland to Italy. Powerful forces of nature make the railyway line a dangerous route over the Grisons Alps to this day. The film accompanies the Bernina Express in winter over the highest rail route across the Alps.
They run through deserts, through ice and snow, deep into the jungle, along the water and over the mountains. The landscapes through which these routes wind are unique and exert their never-ending fascination even on regular travellers. In our documentary “Hot Roads – An Icebound Road” which is part of the five-part film series “Hot Roads” we want to tell the stories that take place along the route itself, of the people who live along it and for whom the road is part and parcel of their personal destiny.
The air wants to flee the heat, but is too weak. It hovers just above the ground, heavy and weighed down by the oven-like heat. It turns wanly around itself, and tries to cool off by liquefying itself. It vibrates, it oscillates – but there is no escape. This is West Africa in late March. The Harmattan, the hot desert wind of the Sahara, is blowing without respite. It has no pity with the people who live here. Whoever wants to go from one place to another has to travel on roads that hardly deserve this name. They are dusty paths that don't appear on any map. They are maneuverable only with great effort and for a few months of the year. They are impassable during the rainy season, since they are washed over by the Niger River, one of the mightiest rivers in the world. When it starts to rain, the roads turn into muddy paths. Every journey is a trip into uncertainty.
The “Adriatic Highway” is one of the most beautiful coastal roads in the world. The “technical masterwork” was built in the 1950s and 60s, at the time of Yugoslavian President Tito. Abounding in curves, the asphalt road stretches from Ankaran in Slovenia to Ulcinj in Montenegro. More than half of the road is in Croatia (659 km) and a quarter in Montenegro (125 km). Shorter segments lead through Slovenia only nine kilometers are in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For all four countries of the former Yugoslavian Federation, the 1,200-kilometer-long highway remains the main thoroughfare of Adriatic tourism. For many travelers, the highway is the absolute dream road. In dizzying heights, it hugs the steep cliffs lining the Adriatic Sea, winds through coves and bays, gardens and stony fields. Wonderful views of the blue sea, green islands, bizarre cliffs and Mediterranean cities and towns are typical of the highway. But with its numerous curves, the dream road also harbors many dangers.
In Bangladesh, the land with the highest density of population in the world (and the highest amount of corruption), the daily struggle to survive is fought everywhere, including the streets. Nowhere do people drive as brutally and recklessly as here. In Bangladesh you drive on the road like others drive with a bumper car: if you need space, you simply ram the car driving next to you. The police only came if there are fatalities. The biggest bottleneck in the transport system is the historical old town of Dhaka. Old Dhaka is a universe of its own, a world of bazaars in which every trade has its own quarter: there are streets of jewelers, sweets makers and fashionable tailors, and the vegetable wholesalers have their warehouses down at the port. The deliveries take place mostly on the river, the Buriganga River, a stinking cesspool. But the sold goods usually leave by land, and the customers also come by the land route – the Nawabpur Road. They generally come in buses or by rickshaw, where too many people are crammed into too little space. The traffic in Dhaka is everyday, normal madness. The film accompanies a rickshaw, a bus and a truck on their dangerous way through the streets of Dhaka and shows how it is possible to survive in what seems to be an incontrollable chaos.
It is a road of mountain passes and India's access to the roof of the world – the Himalayas. This 475-kilometre long route at the northernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent connects the cities of Manali and Leh at the heart of the Ladakh region. The term “highway” applies quite literally, since the route traverses five of the highest drivable mountain passes in the world – among these the Lohtang La at 3,978 metres above sea level, the Lachulung La at 5,059 metres and the Tanglang La at 5,325 metres. Crossing these passes is a challenge for both vehicle and man. The mountain peaks, still snow-capped even in the depths of summer, wide variety of vegetation and the fantastic and craggy landscape turn any journey into a captivating adventure.
Switzerland or Spain? This question is often asked by those who see pictures from northern Spain for the first time: High mountains, lonely villages, but - this is the crucial difference - also breathtaking Atlantic beaches. The "Costa Verde", the green coast, is a piece of Spain that is so different from the general tourist image of the Germans' favorite vacation destination. This area has been spared from mass tourism. We travel by train from Bilbao in the Basque Country to Santander in Cantabria and Asturias.
We travel by train from the westernmost point of mainland Europe up to Portugal's only national park, the Peneda-Gerês, and from lively Porto to the Spanish border in the northeast. The train takes you from the blue sea to the green Douro Valley, from the urban metropolis to the scorching heat of the deserted hinterland.
The air wants to flee the heat, but is too weak. It hovers just above the ground, heavy and weighed down by the oven-like heat. It turns wanly around itself, and tries to cool off by liquefying itself. It vibrates, it oscillates – but there is no escape. This is West Africa in late March. The Harmattan, the hot desert wind of the Sahara, is blowing without respite. It has no pity with the people who live here. Whoever wants to go from one place to another has to travel on roads that hardly deserve this name. They are dusty paths that don't appear on any map. They are maneuverable only with great effort and for a few months of the year. They are impassable during the rainy season, since they are washed over by the Niger River, one of the mightiest rivers in the world. When it starts to rain, the roads turn into muddy paths. Every journey is a trip into uncertainty.
The “Adriatic Highway” is one of the most beautiful coastal roads in the world. The “technical masterwork” was built in the 1950s and 60s, at the time of Yugoslavian President Tito. Abounding in curves, the asphalt road stretches from Ankaran in Slovenia to Ulcinj in Montenegro. More than half of the road is in Croatia (659 km) and a quarter in Montenegro (125 km). Shorter segments lead through Slovenia only nine kilometers are in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For all four countries of the former Yugoslavian Federation, the 1,200-kilometer-long highway remains the main thoroughfare of Adriatic tourism. For many travelers, the highway is the absolute dream road. In dizzying heights, it hugs the steep cliffs lining the Adriatic Sea, winds through coves and bays, gardens and stony fields. Wonderful views of the blue sea, green islands, bizarre cliffs and Mediterranean cities and towns are typical of the highway. But with its numerous curves, the dream road also harbors many dangers.
In Bangladesh, the land with the highest density of population in the world (and the highest amount of corruption), the daily struggle to survive is fought everywhere, including the streets. Nowhere do people drive as brutally and recklessly as here. In Bangladesh you drive on the road like others drive with a bumper car: if you need space, you simply ram the car driving next to you. The police only came if there are fatalities. The biggest bottleneck in the transport system is the historical old town of Dhaka. Old Dhaka is a universe of its own, a world of bazaars in which every trade has its own quarter: there are streets of jewelers, sweets makers and fashionable tailors, and the vegetable wholesalers have their warehouses down at the port. The deliveries take place mostly on the river, the Buriganga River, a stinking cesspool. But the sold goods usually leave by land, and the customers also come by the land route – the Nawabpur Road. They generally come in buses or by rickshaw, where too many people are crammed into too little space. The traffic in Dhaka is everyday, normal madness. The film accompanies a rickshaw, a bus and a truck on their dangerous way through the streets of Dhaka and shows how it is possible to survive in what seems to be an incontrollable chaos.
It is a road of mountain passes and India's access to the roof of the world – the Himalayas. This 475-kilometre long route at the northernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent connects the cities of Manali and Leh at the heart of the Ladakh region. The term “highway” applies quite literally, since the route traverses five of the highest drivable mountain passes in the world – among these the Lohtang La at 3,978 metres above sea level, the Lachulung La at 5,059 metres and the Tanglang La at 5,325 metres. Crossing these passes is a challenge for both vehicle and man. The mountain peaks, still snow-capped even in the depths of summer, wide variety of vegetation and the fantastic and craggy landscape turn any journey into a captivating adventure.
Switzerland or Spain? This question is often asked by those who see pictures from northern Spain for the first time: High mountains, lonely villages, but - this is the crucial difference - also breathtaking Atlantic beaches. The "Costa Verde", the green coast, is a piece of Spain that is so different from the general tourist image of the Germans' favorite vacation destination. This area has been spared from mass tourism. We travel by train from Bilbao in the Basque Country to Santander in Cantabria and Asturias.
We travel by train from the westernmost point of mainland Europe up to Portugal's only national park, the Peneda-Gerês, and from lively Porto to the Spanish border in the northeast. The train takes you from the blue sea to the green Douro Valley, from the urban metropolis to the scorching heat of the deserted hinterland.
Lake Lucerne in the heart of Switzerland stretches from the foothills of the Alps to the first three-thousand-meter peaks of the high mountains. Home waters of the paddle steamer Unterwalden. For two and a half years she was not on the water. Now, after the biggest renovation in her history, the life of the 110-year-old paddle steamer is starting all over again. Her first voyages, with all the imponderables and challenges for the crew, take her into a diverse, wild landscape, right into the mystical heart of Switzerland. In their territory, scenic contrasts collide: barren high moorland and gently rolling alpine meadows, modern tourist resorts and quiet mountain villages, caves hidden deep in the earth and snow-covered two-thousand-meter peaks. The Unterwalden is part of the oldest and largest fleet of paddle steamers so high above the sea. Here on Lake Lucerne, according to national legend, the three original cantons swore eternal allegiance to each other over seven hundred years ago. A land around which countless myths entwine and whose lifeline since the opening of the Gotthard Pass in the thirteenth century was the shipping traffic on the lake.
With a length of more than 1000 kilometers, the Elbe is one of the largest rivers in Europe. The river has shaped landscapes since time immemorial: geologically, economically and culturally. One of the most beautiful sections of the river - in Saxony in southeastern Germany - has been navigated by the Saxon Steamship Company since 1836. One of its most beautiful ships is the Diesbar. Its engine is considered the oldest paddle steamer engine still in use in the world, the ship is the only steamer in the fleet still powered by coal.
The Pamban Railway crosses the tropical landscape of Tamil Nadu, the former Madras, for around 600 kilometers. Heavy storms and rain showers make the route a challenge for Indian Railways to this day. The film accompanies the "Rameswaram Express" over the notorious Pamban Bridge, the first bridge across the Indian Ocean.
The Tanzania-Zambia-Railway (Tazara) is one of Africa's most ambitious infrastructure projects. It connects the inland with the coast of East Africa and meant independence from the surrounding apartheid-ruled countries of East Africa. The film accompanies the Tazara on its 52-hour journey through Tanzania and Zambia and uses spectacular aerial shots to show not only the architectural monuments but also the unknown sides of the previously hidden landscapes of Tanzania and Zambia.
Over 196 bridges and through 55 tunnels, the Bernina Express fights its way from Switzerland to Italy. Powerful forces of nature make the railyway line a dangerous route over the Grisons Alps to this day. The film accompanies the Bernina Express in winter over the highest rail route across the Alps.
They run through deserts, through ice and snow, deep into the jungle, along the water and over the mountains. The landscapes through which these routes wind are unique and exert their never-ending fascination even on regular travellers. In our documentary “Hot Roads – An Icebound Road” which is part of the five-part film series “Hot Roads” we want to tell the stories that take place along the route itself, of the people who live along it and for whom the road is part and parcel of their personal destiny.
Showing1to20of755results
