Desert ships - Of camels and people
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Desert ships - Of camels and people |
| Country of production | Austria |
| original language | German , Arabic , Mongolian , English , Turkish , French |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 52 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Georg Misch |
| script | Georg Misch |
| production | Ralph Wieser |
| music | Jim Howard |
| camera | Joerg Burger , Klaus Achter |
| cut | Marek Kralovsky |
| occupation | |
| |
Desert Ships - Von Kamelen und Menschen is an Austrian documentary by director Georg Misch about camels . The ORF documentary follows the routes of the caravans and tells camel stories from Saudi Arabia, Asia and Africa, from the beginnings to the present of more than 5000 years of coexistence between humans and camels. The first broadcast took place on October 4, 2012 in Austria as part of the television series Universum . The documentary was broadcast on arte on December 21, 2012 and on Das Erste on January 8, 2013.
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Camels are the desert's survivors. They can survive for up to ten months without a drop of liquid, then absorb over 200 liters of water in just 15 minutes and even digest seawater. The domestication of these animals as a means of transport enabled the beginning of the ancient long-distance trade, because camels for the first time bridged distances of thousands of kilometers in often hostile areas and thus became the backbone of the salt and incense caravans. For large parts of Africa, Asia and the Bedouin Arabia, camels are still the most important source of milk, meat, leather and wool as well as dung as fuel. The Bedouins therefore call the camel Al-Ata Allah, the "gift of God".
In this documentary, director Georg Misch emphasizes the importance of camels for humans with moving images. It is only for around 5,000 years that man has made use of the camel to conquer the desolate and driest areas of the world with his “gift from Allah”. The appreciation of animals in Saudi Arabia goes so far that the state has set up hospitals only for camels, where sick camels from all over Saudi Arabia and even from neighboring countries are treated there free of charge.
In Turkey, 20,000 people and 120 camels gather near the ancient sites of Ephesus near Selcuk every year. This is where the traditional camel wrestling fights take place, in which specially bred camel bulls fight against each other but are not allowed to be harmed. The workers of these precious animals take care of that.
When humans brought the camel to Australia, their help opened up the vast outback territory, supplied the most remote settlements with provisions, and advanced the construction of telegraph lines, railways and highways. After the road and rail network had been completed, the animals were no longer used and were released for shooting in 1923. But a few hundred camels escaped and multiplied to such an extent that the feral camels have become a real nuisance today. The approximately one million animals drink water holes and even swimming pools empty. Since a collision with a camel in car traffic is often fatal, the animals are driven from the streets by helicopters. A current solution to the decimation of the camel has been found by a sheikh who rounds up the animals and lets them be brought to the Saudi Arabian peninsula by ship to use them as racing camels.
In Mongolia, director Georg Misch and scientists Chris Walzer and Pamela Burger are looking for the “Bactrian” camels, the last real wild camels on the planet. Only 400 specimens remain in the Gobi Desert, an area half the size of Austria. They survive extreme temperature fluctuations and are content with salt water. Despite the most adverse circumstances, the first recordings of “ghost camels”, as they are also called, were successful in their natural habitat.
But there are still many amazing facts about camels to be discovered. This is how the Bedouins preserved their ancient knowledge. They swear by the healing power of camel milk and camel urine. In order to scientifically prove this, the medicinal properties of these two ingredients are researched in modern laboratories. In the future, camel cheese will also be produced in Europe.
Web links
- Ships of the Desert - from camels and people in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Desert Ships - Of camels and people on the side of the production company
- Desert ships - Of camels and people at 3Sat.de