Bruno Manser - Laki Penan [DVD]

Scientist and environmentalist Bruno Manser left Switzerland in 1984 to live with the indigenous Penan jungle people in the remote rain forests of Sarawak, Borneo. For six years he learned their language and adopted their culture and the Penan accepted Manser as one of themselves, calling him Laki-Penan, the Penan-Man. When the first bulldozers began to systematically clear the rainforest, Manser aroused international awareness of the ecological and human disaster through spectacular activities, which made him powerful enemies. In the spring of 2000, on a secret journey to the Penan, he disappeared without a trace. The film dips into this remote world and allows those Penan who had become Manser's second family to speak of their mutual adventures and fears and his ability to unite the Penan in resisting the tree-fellers and the police. What emerges is a balanced portrait of the passionate scientist, mystic and romantic portrayed one-dimensionally in the media as an angry environmentalist. The film also tells of the Penan people's tragic fight for survival as they are forced to yield to the all-powerful timber industry. ...Bruno Manser - Laki Penan