documentary Nature | Wildlife THE LAST FOREST a ... - Interspot Film

documentary
Nature | Wildlife
THE LAST FOREST
a primeval forest in the heart of europe
When we talk of a “virgin” forest today, we almost automatically
think of the tropical rain forest. But Austria, right
in the heart of Europe, hides a genuine virgin forest that is
virtually unknown. In remote mountainous regions that are
difficult to access, “genuine” forests have survived where the
axe has never been wielded and that have remained untouched
by forestry management. “The Last Forest” is the first documentary
to show these relics of a natural splendour long since lost
elsewhere in Europe.
Gigantic trees that reach 50 metres into the sky and are toppled
by a gale, martens that plunder nests, ants that feed on frogs,
and a lynx that catches mice – these are only a few of the highlights
shown in this documentary, which also presents rare bird
species, such as the black woodpecker, which grows to the size
of a crow, or the pygmy owl, Europe’s tiniest owl.
AUSTRIA’S TOP FILM AND TV PRODUCERS OF WILDLIFE MOVIES
length
45 minutes
director
kurt mündl
year
1993
format
beta sp
version
english and german
completed

documentary
Nature | Wildlife
THE LAST FOREST
a primeval forest in the heart of europe
The last surviving pockets of virgin forest in the Austrian Alps are a singular sight in Europe.
It is a unique forest that offers a habitat to thousands of threatened animals and plants.
Here are found trees that are over 500 years old, giants of the forest grown up to 2 metres in
diameter. Their crowns give sanctuary to breeding goshawks and buzzards; in their stems
three-toed woodpeckers and black woodpeckers have carved out their nesting holes.
Masses of deadwood typically sprinkle the ground: where in a managed forest windbreak and
fallen wood is cleared away, a giant tree in the virgin forest will lie on the ground for decades
before it is fully decomposed. And while the tree is dying it is still teeming with life: hundreds
of seedlings shoot out of the rotting parent, and its mouldering timber gives nourishment to
a large number of rare beetles and mushrooms.
“The Last Forest” is the first-ever documentary of a unique ecosystem based in a forest: the
passage of four seasons of birth and death of animal and plant societies inhabiting a matchless
virgin forest in the middle of the European Alps, the precise location of which is not given
away without since human interference or – worse – human tourism would destroy this sensitive
site.
The focus of the documentary is on the interaction and vulnerability of these vestiges of
primeval forest. It shows wildlife scenes of superior quality: brown bears foraging for food in
the undergrowth, a lynx catching mice, a black woodpecker hunting for food from its nesting
hole, a tree marten plundering a bird's nest, a pygmy owl catching its prey in the dense treetops…
Images of a “genuine” forest which may well be dead a few decades hence.
For further information please contact
HEINRICH MAYER
Interspot Film-Ges.m.b.H
A-1230 Vienna
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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