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Poppy's Promise

Poppy's Promise

The cornfield - just an area for producing food… or a land full of secrets? This doc portrays a little recognized habitat right next door. The spectacular visuals filmed with state of the art equipment introduce the surprisingly large diversity of field inhabitants. We follow a hamster family through a season full of adventures and are drawn into an unknown world – a world of which we thought we knew everything about. In the western industrial nations cornfields and woods take up the greatest proportion of rural land. But how much natural life dwells in a cornfield? Why are some cornfield inhabitants harmful and others useful and what do the colourful flowers at the edge of the field promise us? We follow a hamster family through a season full of adventures and are drawn into an unknown world – a world of which we thought we knew everything about.

2025-12-08 19:52:41 +0000 UTC2025-12-08 20:43:34 +0000 UTC (50m)
Northern Woods

Northern Woods

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.

2025-12-08 18:51:34 +0000 UTC2025-12-08 19:52:41 +0000 UTC (1h1m)
Germany's Mystic Forest

Germany's Mystic Forest

2.000 rivers and streams dig deep into the underground and transport their water into reservoirs or "Germany's Wild Amazon", the Wupper. These forests and rivers, together with heathlands and moors, are home to a diverse fauna. Martens, badgers, wild boars, hares, roe deer, and red deer, even black grouse and hazel deer find shelter in these parts. Wolves also have a dominant presence, not to mention those who live underground, such as lizards, bats, and snakes. Accompany us on a journey where we explore every corner of this rugged land. Climb underground into the Bergisches Land, through the vast hidden cave systems that sprawl far beneath the forests. There is also much to be discovered in the water, dive with us in crystal clear streams and rivers with their diverse flora and fauna.

2025-12-08 17:51:03 +0000 UTC2025-12-08 18:51:34 +0000 UTC (1h)
The Secret world of Herbs

The Secret world of Herbs

In the pristine nature and mild climate of southeastern Europe grows a unique diversity of wild plants. Far removed from major industry and polluted soils, the Balkan countries have become the largest exporter of herbs in Europe. In Bulgaria alone, more than 300,000 people work with domestic plants. The business is becoming increasingly lucrative. The film takes us to the Croatian coast. On the Adriatic island of Cres, the audience meets Mladen Dragoslavić. In May, when the sage begins to blossom, this beekeeper has one month to produce his income for an entire year – always with the goal of creating the best sage honey in the Balkans. Given a choice, the bees would never choose sage, for entering and exiting the narrow blossom is strenuous. Within three weeks, maximum, Mladen must remove his bees from the island. Otherwise they will die of exhaustion. In Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, the film visits Iva Yosifova. Hollyhock provides the raw material for her objects of art. The herb is medically beneficial, due to its mucilage, which is added to many cough tea mixtures. Iva, though, makes paper from hollyhock. Thanks to the herb's long fibres, the paper can be spread onto objects and modeled. The technique produces delicate sculptures, as fragile as nature.

2025-12-08 10:30:04 +0000 UTC2025-12-08 11:21:10 +0000 UTC (51m)
The Secret world of Herbs

The Secret world of Herbs

Secluded for many centuries in inaccessible valleys, the inhabitants of the Alps had no alternative but to rely on the healing powers of nature. A knowledge of herbs was deeply rooted in these mountain-dwellers' everyday lives – until the twentieth century, when this wisdom became eclipsed by modern academic medicine. Today, Alpine herbs are witnessing a revival, as public interest in regional natural treasures grows. The potential of Alpine herbs is far from exhausted. In the Berchtesgaden Alps, the film shows Hubsi Ilsanker at work as a root-digger, a back-breaking job that has scarcely changed in four hundred years. Authorized by a special historic permit to supply the oldest gentian distillery in Germany, Hubsi digs for protected gentian roots in Berchtesgaden National Park. For yellow gentian is one of the most bitter medicinal herbs in the world, well suited for schnapps and as a general tonic.

2025-12-08 09:38:54 +0000 UTC2025-12-08 10:30:04 +0000 UTC (51m)
The Secret world of Herbs

The Secret world of Herbs

Healing effects, fragrance, and intense flavor – the benefits of herbs were discovered by the indigenous peoples of South America long before Spanish conquistadores subdued the continent. Even today, in the remote regions of South America, life without herbs is unthinkable. For many inhabitants, they provide the sole medicine. For more than two thousand years, this wisdom of the healing powers of nature has been passed down from generation to generation. In Bolivia, the film accompanies ethnobiologist Rainer Bussmann on one of his expeditions documenting which herbs the locals use against which illnesses. The German scientist has spent the last 15 years in the region, focussed on preserving this invaluable knowledge.

2025-12-08 08:47:46 +0000 UTC2025-12-08 09:38:54 +0000 UTC (51m)
The Secret world of Herbs

The Secret world of Herbs

In India, herbs play an everyday role hardly equalled anywhere in the world. From the tropical green south to the mountains of the northern Himalayas, herbs lend fragrance to joss sticks and soaps, and flavor to the cuisine. And, above all, herbs heal. Six thousand varieties of plants are used in India, and most are harvested in the wild – where they are becoming depleted. The ever rising need for herbal medicine for the subcontinent's 1.3 billion inhabitants comes on top of the demand of its growing middle class for herbal-based cosmetics. As a result, certain herbs have become scarce, while others have already vanished entirely. Most of the herbs in India are harvested in the wild. The progress of first cultivation attempts is slow. In India, the rural population, especially, needs affordable, well-tolerated medicine – medicine based on herbs. In Kerala, the film shows a family operation that hand-produces botanical medicine for the local market. High up in the Himalayas, we observe a village healer at work. The science of Ayurvedic medicine is five thousand years old. Today, interest in the ancient healing art is surging, not only in India. In Delhi's Old Town, the film visits a wholesaler who supplies the booming global herb market, and we take a look inside the laboratories of the largest manufacturer of Ayurvedic medicines in the world. In Kerala, we meet a doctor employed at a small Ayurveda clinic, and in Nordern India, we join a student of Tibetan medicine on a hike up into the mountains, where she prepares for an exam in herbology.

2025-12-08 07:56:39 +0000 UTC2025-12-08 08:47:46 +0000 UTC (51m)
The Secret world of Herbs

The Secret world of Herbs

Its native fragrant flowers and aromatic herbs have made the Provence a brand known worldwide. The wealth of flora found in this region, between the French Alps and the Mediterranean, is unequalled among the French provinces. Around Sault, near Mont Ventoux, the valleys and high plains are carpeted with bright violet: In the hot climate of the South of France, lavender blooms and exudes its fragrance. Monastic healers have been using its aromatic medicinal oil since the Middle Ages. And today an entire industry is based on the trade with this fragrant flower. Yet the livelihood of Provençal lavender farmers is imperiled. In France's major lavender-growing region, the “Plateau de Valensole”, our viewers encounter Gérard Blanc, who has been hit particularly hard. The lavender farmer lost sixty percent of his harvest to one tiny insect: the leafhopper. This insect has already destroyed half of the lavender acreage, bumping France from its market position as the world's top producer of lavender oil. The film visits a resolute farmer who, not about to give up, is testing methods to fend off the voracious insect.

2025-12-08 07:05:36 +0000 UTC2025-12-08 07:56:39 +0000 UTC (51m)
Poppy's Promise

Poppy's Promise

The cornfield - just an area for producing food… or a land full of secrets? This doc portrays a little recognized habitat right next door. The spectacular visuals filmed with state of the art equipment introduce the surprisingly large diversity of field inhabitants. We follow a hamster family through a season full of adventures and are drawn into an unknown world – a world of which we thought we knew everything about. In the western industrial nations cornfields and woods take up the greatest proportion of rural land. But how much natural life dwells in a cornfield? Why are some cornfield inhabitants harmful and others useful and what do the colourful flowers at the edge of the field promise us? We follow a hamster family through a season full of adventures and are drawn into an unknown world – a world of which we thought we knew everything about.

2025-12-08 06:14:44 +0000 UTC2025-12-08 07:05:36 +0000 UTC (50m)
Northern Woods

Northern Woods

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.

2025-12-08 05:13:37 +0000 UTC2025-12-08 06:14:44 +0000 UTC (1h1m)
Germany's Mystic Forest

Germany's Mystic Forest

2.000 rivers and streams dig deep into the underground and transport their water into reservoirs or "Germany's Wild Amazon", the Wupper. These forests and rivers, together with heathlands and moors, are home to a diverse fauna. Martens, badgers, wild boars, hares, roe deer, and red deer, even black grouse and hazel deer find shelter in these parts. Wolves also have a dominant presence, not to mention those who live underground, such as lizards, bats, and snakes. Accompany us on a journey where we explore every corner of this rugged land. Climb underground into the Bergisches Land, through the vast hidden cave systems that sprawl far beneath the forests. There is also much to be discovered in the water, dive with us in crystal clear streams and rivers with their diverse flora and fauna.

2025-12-08 04:13:06 +0000 UTC2025-12-08 05:13:37 +0000 UTC (1h)