Wildlife THE GREEN RIVER INN fascination of an ... - Interspot Film

documentary
Nature | Wildlife
THE GREEN RIVER INN
fascination of an alpine river
Acascade of water pouring from glaciers and a lake in the high
mountains, a water fall tumbling from high up into the valley,
a chain of lakes at the base of 10,000-foot peaks, rocky chasms
disgorging the torrent, drawn-out gravel banks and mudflats,
undercut banks and river bends, and extensive riparian forests at
the river’s lower reaches: the Inn has many faces to show and an
interesting tale to tell. It is the longest tributary of the Danube in
Central Europe, flowing through three countries (Switzerland,
Austria and Bavaria) along its 520 kilometre course.
The variety in landscape is reflected in the diversity of the flora
and fauna along the river: grayling and trout swarm in its headwaters,
little ringed plovers breed on the gravel banks, dragonflies,
frogs and rare water plants populate the oxbows, owls and
bats raise their young in the bluffs, and along the river’s lower
stretches live beavers, otters, night herons, sheldrakes,
goosanders and dozens of other bird species.
It is the river’s indestructible power and dynamism, however, that
is most impressive: in spite of many hydropower plants and dams
lining its path, the river still carries more than a million tons of
suspended solids a month downstream before it empties its load
into the Danube and loses its name near Passau.
AUSTRIA’S TOP FILM AND TV PRODUCERS OF WILDLIFE MOVIES
length
50 minutes
written and directed by
franz hafner
produced by
heinrich mayer
executive producers
rudolf klingohr
walter köhler
year
2011
format
HDTV
versions
german|english
in production

documentary
Nature | Wildlife
THE GREEN RIVER INN
fascination of an alpine river
The documentary follows the Inn river from its headspring at the Piz Lunghin to its discharge
into the Danube.
The tale begins in the mountains, in late winter when snow and ice start to thaw, and it ends
on the plains in late summer when most brooding birds leave the riverine forests and make
room for the birds of passage arriving from Northern Europe.
Aerial shots in particular will show the scenic diversity of the Inn: the Engadine lakes, the Scuol
gorge, the upper reaches of the Inn through Tyrol, the bends near Wasserburg and the
extensive riparian forests of the Lower Inn European Nature Reserve.
In the course of our downstream journey we observe salient events of the natural year and
show outstanding places along the river or in its neighbourhood: the source of the Inn in Lake
Lunghin, at an altitude of about 2500 m, and its community of spawning grass frogs, the
moors and reed land of the Engadine lakes, the Swiss National Park with their rock goats and
herds of chamois, the wild river and its underwater inhabitants in the Scuol gorge, the gravel
banks in Tyrol with their rare insects and plants, the sloping forests and steep banks in Bavaria
where owls and bats live, and the reeds, mudflats and willow thickets along its lower course
where ten thousand black-headed gulls breed in a colony, and beavers and old-world otters
populate the river banks.
While the journey concentrates on wildlife, it does not totally ignore humans: we accompany
the children of Scuol who, on Chalandamarz, the first day of March, try to drive out the
winter; we watch kayakers paddling through the Ardez gorge, follow the fishermen at the
Lower Inn and see the ancient custom of Fischerstechen – a tilting tournament among fishermen.
For further information please contact
HEINRICH MAYER
Interspot Film-Ges.m.b.H
A-1230 Wien
Walter-Jurmann-Gasse 4
phone: + 43 1 | 80 120-420
fax: + 43 1 | 80 120-222
e-mail: mayer@interspot.at
www.interspot.at
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