documentary Nature | Wildlife THE LAST FOREST a ... - Interspot Film
documentary Nature | Wildlife THE LAST FOREST a ... - Interspot Film
documentary Nature | Wildlife THE LAST FOREST a ... - Interspot Film
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<strong>documentary</strong><br />
<strong>Nature</strong> | <strong>Wildlife</strong><br />
<strong>THE</strong> <strong>LAST</strong> <strong>FOREST</strong><br />
a primeval forest in the heart of europe<br />
When we talk of a “virgin” forest today, we almost automatically<br />
think of the tropical rain forest. But Austria, right<br />
in the heart of Europe, hides a genuine virgin forest that is<br />
virtually unknown. In remote mountainous regions that are<br />
difficult to access, “genuine” forests have survived where the<br />
axe has never been wielded and that have remained untouched<br />
by forestry management. “The Last Forest” is the first <strong>documentary</strong><br />
to show these relics of a natural splendour long since lost<br />
elsewhere in Europe.<br />
Gigantic trees that reach 50 metres into the sky and are toppled<br />
by a gale, martens that plunder nests, ants that feed on frogs,<br />
and a lynx that catches mice – these are only a few of the highlights<br />
shown in this <strong>documentary</strong>, which also presents rare bird<br />
species, such as the black woodpecker, which grows to the size<br />
of a crow, or the pygmy owl, Europe’s tiniest owl.<br />
AUSTRIA’S TOP FILM AND TV PRODUCERS OF WILDLIFE MOVIES<br />
length<br />
45 minutes<br />
director<br />
kurt mündl<br />
year<br />
1993<br />
format<br />
beta sp<br />
version<br />
english and german<br />
completed
<strong>documentary</strong><br />
<strong>Nature</strong> | <strong>Wildlife</strong><br />
<strong>THE</strong> <strong>LAST</strong> <strong>FOREST</strong><br />
a primeval forest in the heart of europe<br />
The last surviving pockets of virgin forest in the Austrian Alps are a singular sight in Europe.<br />
It is a unique forest that offers a habitat to thousands of threatened animals and plants.<br />
Here are found trees that are over 500 years old, giants of the forest grown up to 2 metres in<br />
diameter. Their crowns give sanctuary to breeding goshawks and buzzards; in their stems<br />
three-toed woodpeckers and black woodpeckers have carved out their nesting holes.<br />
Masses of deadwood typically sprinkle the ground: where in a managed forest windbreak and<br />
fallen wood is cleared away, a giant tree in the virgin forest will lie on the ground for decades<br />
before it is fully decomposed. And while the tree is dying it is still teeming with life: hundreds<br />
of seedlings shoot out of the rotting parent, and its mouldering timber gives nourishment to<br />
a large number of rare beetles and mushrooms.<br />
“The Last Forest” is the first-ever <strong>documentary</strong> of a unique ecosystem based in a forest: the<br />
passage of four seasons of birth and death of animal and plant societies inhabiting a matchless<br />
virgin forest in the middle of the European Alps, the precise location of which is not given<br />
away without since human interference or – worse – human tourism would destroy this sensitive<br />
site.<br />
The focus of the <strong>documentary</strong> is on the interaction and vulnerability of these vestiges of<br />
primeval forest. It shows wildlife scenes of superior quality: brown bears foraging for food in<br />
the undergrowth, a lynx catching mice, a black woodpecker hunting for food from its nesting<br />
hole, a tree marten plundering a bird's nest, a pygmy owl catching its prey in the dense treetops…<br />
Images of a “genuine” forest which may well be dead a few decades hence.<br />
For further information please contact<br />
HEINRICH MAYER<br />
<strong>Interspot</strong> <strong>Film</strong>-Ges.m.b.H<br />
A-1230 Vienna<br />
Walter-Jurmann-Gasse 4<br />
phone: + 43 1 | 80 120-420<br />
fax: + 43 1 | 80 120-222<br />
e-mail: mayer@interspot.at<br />
www.interspot.at<br />
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