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Along with photographer Rui Camilo, we travel to the West African island nation of Sao Tomé and Príncipe - in search of images that will capture the soul of this small and beautiful country. (S1 E04)
Spirits, Kings, Lemurs – Madagascar treats Ami to a multitude of new impressions and spectacular pictures. Director Christian Schidlowski and his team accompanied her on her trip. (S1 E03)
Renaud Van Der Meeren is a photographer and paramotor pilot. With his motorised parachute he goes on expeditions to the remotest corners on earth to photograph people and landscapes from the air. Renaud wanted to be a jet pilot, studied music at the Sorbonne, became a ski instructor, model and photographer's assistant before he found happiness in his current vocation. He especially likes to do his job in Mauritius – nowhere else does he find so many motifs as on the "sweetest pearl in the Indian Ocean". This time he's working on a photo book about Mauritius – by land, by water and in the air. (S1 E02)
Photographer Matthias Ziegler is an Africa specialist. He has visited nearly every country on the continent on assignments for international agencies. Zanzibar, however, is new territory for him. He's come to the former slave island for a photo book – and this time he's not alone. To see the Tanzanian archipelago from the air, he has enlisted the services of ultralight pilot Richard Meredith-Hardy of England to fly him around in his FIB, or flying inflatable boat. Perfect conditions for an adventurous journey: as a world champion ultralight pilot, Richard and his FIB can take off and land practically anywhere – in theory. (S1 E01)
In the middle of the Antarctic Ocean, an entire mountain range arises from the water: South Georgia, the nursery of the Antarctic. Hundreds of thousands of penguins, elephant seals, fur seals and their young overcrowd the beaches. The rough weather and the extremely difficult access to the island cause filmmaking to be an endeavor requiring much of the film crew around Roland Gockel and Rosie Koch and the state of the art cameras. A lot of patience and sensitivity over a period spanning some five years now offers unknown and poignant insights into the life of the King Penguins on South Georgia Island
When food supply in the Serengeti dwindles, the Masai Mara is a paradise for predators. As the black wildebeests, gazelles, zebras and antelopes make their yearly trip from the south of the Serengeti to the north, nature's best laid trap, the Mara River in Kenya is waiting ahead. Captivating shots filmed under water show how crocodiles prepare for the Big Hunt while other predators lurk on the banks awaiting their bounty. The biggest problems for the migratory animals are the Mara and the Tarek River, where they have to put their lives at risk to get to the other side. A great number of them die as they jump into the river and break their legs, while others are carried away by the drift or drown. Those who are not victims of the river itself risk falling prey to the crocodiles. We entered this unchartered territory, the crocodile domain by heading under water. Follow these predators in and around their habitat and watch prides of lions map out their game plan. In slow-motion, we show you the final showdown between predator and prey. Will it be a successful hunt or will the hoofed animals persevere?
Wide open heaths, windswept and barren in winter, are transformed into wonderful carpets of white, fluffy cotton grass in summer. Large bears and wolves roam alongside delicately fluttering butterflies, the bubbling calls of black grouse and the enchanting trills of the great snipe. Moors, bogs and wetlands can be found all over in Europe. Everyone has at least heard about this habitat but most know little about it. It is an ancient yet largely unknown set of landscapes that is full of enchanting surprises. On a warm spring day, poisonous adders emerge from hiding to perform their impressive mating dance. As dusk falls, snipe gather on traditional leks, leaping and singing to impress the opposite sex. And deep down in the boggy marshes, glittering emeralds of sticky dew lure insects into the deadly arms of meat-eating plants. Magical Moors captures the quiet beauty of a spectacular landscape, and its often elusive wildlife, in stunning detail.
The Dordogne consists of a visible and an invisible system of flowing water. Caves and basins under the earth's surface store the excess water and return it to the river when it is dry. A perfect management of a precious resource, not invented by humans, but by the complex nature itself. The result is an ever life-giving river. (S1 E02)
The Gironde is the largest and most powerful tidal current in Europe. When the Gironde flows into the Atlantic, it is 15 kilometers wide and in the rhythm of the tides, it brings the waters from the Pyrenees and the Massif Central into the ocean. This often pushes its waters far out into the Gironde at high tide.This creates a world of its own that has shaped everything uniquely and intensely for tens of thousands of years. The water surface of the river is so large that the evaporation has created its own microclimate, which is stable and, together with the brackish waters, has influenced flora and fauna on the right and left of the bank for a long time. (S1 E01)
We accompany the first steps of a two-year-old elephant who is just starting his release program. We also observe the story of two young elephants in their first night in the wilderness on their own. Captivating film footage allows us to truly learn how elephants behave in the wild. (S1 E02)
We follow the rescue of a baby elephant. Once rescued, it will be transported by plane to the breeding station and raised with love and commitment. In order to satisfy the little pachyderm's urge to move while in the breeding station, there is sometimes an adorable football match between the animals. (S1 E01)
It is a musical film a a tributeto the Nordic forest: it shows its development from a primeval wood to a cultivated forest. Once populated by wild animals such as wolves, bears, eagles, deer and musk oxen, complex re-enactment-scenes shot by dollies and helicopters vividly depict the colonization of the forest by the Celts and Germans. But as time progressed, the northern forest has on numerous occasions fallen victim to environmental degradation and overexploitation. Several provisions were made to protect this wild beauty. The Helsinki resolution of 1993, which stipulated that the woods be used in a way and in a magnitude which guarantees their biological variety and productiveness and vitality, is but one measure put in place to secure the preservation of the natural gem. Time-lapse photography and breath-taking shots show our main protagonist – the woods – in its stunning glory. This beautiful wooded land, changes throughout the seasons. Our woodland is a world-renowned ecological jewel. It is famous, well-known and loved by tourists, forest economists, environmentalists, historians and intellectuals alike.
There are sparkling palaces from ice and snow, like those found in a fairytale. The icy castles are the phenomenal work of Mother Nature but man had a hand in the magnificent stone castles of the region. The spectacular and histrionic mountains of the Bavarian Alps challenge wildlife and the people who live there and the rocky ramparts of this mountain kingdom are built of limestone and fossil rocks that tell of its origins beneath the sea. Millions of visitors from all over the world come to Bavaria every year to witness the mysticism of the landscape. Kings and Queens, tourist and locals, all are welcomed in the fantastic alpine kingdom. Early summer often comes with the threat of storms that bring floods that scour the land and threaten many creatures. But farmers risk these dangers to take their herds to the highest pastures, where they can graze on the sweetest flower-filled meadows. And later from the high-quality milk produced by their herds, the famers make highly prized cheese. Humankind lives among eagle owls, chamoix, wild cats, stoats and ravens up in these mountains.
Fuerteventura, the second largest of the Canary Islands, is located just 120 kilometres off the coast of West Africa. The climate is extremely dry and the struggle for water has always been a major setback. Then, around a century ago, returning US emigrants brought what were then modern wind turbine water pumps from the Aermotor Windmill Company with them to Fuerte-ventura. Today, the environmentally friendly and so-called “Chicago's”, experience a renaissance. Unfortu-nately, original spare parts in good condition are diffi-cult to come by. When Leocadio Araya Sanchez began planting countless cacti on a barren hillside a few years ago, people thought he was mad. His idea was to make a healthy juice drink from the prickly pears – with great success. But getting the fruit to release its pre-cious superfood juice is no simple task. On an almost daily basis, Marcos Tapia is magnetically attracted to one of the paradisiacal beaches of the island. The 44-year-old is Spanish champion and vice world champion in para-body board surfing. When he was 28. Marcos was involved in a serious motorbike accident and has been paraplegic ever since.
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. (S1 E02)
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. (S1 E01)
Most people associate honey producing insects with the name “BEE“. Few realize that there are over 560 different species of bees - most of them live their lives “busy as a bee“ but some “abuse“ other insects and others are even known to be murderers. The film “Wild Bees” shows the incredible diversity and the stunning adaptations of our “BEES” to various habitats and diverse living conditions. Fascinating fights, sensational performances, imposing structures and colorful individuals – the world of “Wild Bees” offers all of this and more. (S1 E02)
Butterflies surely are the most fancied species inside the insect world. Their beautiful colouring and their graceful flight appeal to everyone. There are close to 4000 types of Butterflies – today many of them are endangered due to the loss of their habitat. (S1 E01)
Almost unnoticeably, spring turns into summer. The days become longer and longer, with a never-setting sun. People who have spent their winter and spring working hard can finally enjoy their own nature, even though the temperature is only slightly warmer. Lofoten is sparsely populated, just 24,000 people live here. Unstad is one of its smallest communities with only 15 inhabitants, but despite that, it has become a hotspot for arctic surf and is host to the northern-most surf center in the world. Surfers from all over the globe come to surf in the arctic water. (S1 E02)
Winter means more than just the beginning of the year for the people of Lofoten: For more than a thousand years, Lofoten has been a hub for cod fishing, with seasons lasting from February to April as huge shoals migrate from the Barents Sea to these waters. During these hectic months, more than 65,000 tons of fish are brought to shore, securing the income for the whole of Lofoten for years to come. Around a quarter of the fish caught ends up on lines to dry upon racks. From a young age, the children from the fishing villages get to earn some pocket money by cutting cod tongues and selling the produce as a delicacy appreciated by the locals. (S1 E01)
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