IRON JUNGLE (WDR,NDR)
Nature’s Return to the Ruhr Valley
Length: 1 x 50 min
Format: HD
Year: 2016
Director / Producer:
Christian Baumeister
Camera:
Christian Baumeister
Michael Riegler
Philipp Klein
Editor:
Stefan Reiss
Music:
Oliver Heuss
Distribution:
Albatross World Sales
Awards:
Kolkata International Wildlife & Environment Film Festival, India, 2017
* BEST DIRECTOR
Woodpecker International Film Festival, India, 2017
* 1st PRICE (CATEGORY ENVIRONMENT)
Ekotopfilm, Slovakia, 2017
* 1st PRICE (CATEGORY NATURE AND NATURAL SCIENCE)
TUR Festival, Czech Republic, 2017
* INSPIRATION AWARD
Omni Awards Spring-Competition, USA, 2017
* GOLDEN OMNI AWARD FOR DIRECTING
* GOLDEN OMNI AWARD FOR NATURE CATEGORY
* GOLDEN OMNI AWARD FOR CINEMATOGRAPHY
* GOLDEN OMNI AWARD FOR MUSICAL SCORE
Deauville Green Awards, France, 2017
* FINALIST
Shanghai TV Festival, China, 2017
* FINALIST
Europe’s biggest industrial area turns green! For more than 150 years the Ruhr Area was not only the heart of Germany’s economy, but also Europe’s most extensive industrial zone. Mines, steelworks and chemical industries dominated the region. River systems collapsed and the skies were ash-grey. But over the last decades the area has been transformed. Due to the crisis in coal and steel, many industries were shut down, and huge areas were abandoned. A whole variety of animals returned to fill the vacuum; invading factory ruins, and re-colonizing badlands, artificial hills and lakes. Now peregrines breed on old smokestacks, natterjack toads occupy temporary pools and blue-winged grasshoppers display on hot and stony wastelands. This film not only tells the story of a unique comeback, it also reveals some stunning animal behavior. Above all it celebrates the power and adaptive capacity of life itself.