Heartbeat of the Primeval Forest. Part II. Never-ending Rivalry

Duration: 29’ 30”
Original format: 4:3 SD
Format after the revitalization: 16:9 HD

Screenplay and direction: Bożena Walencik, Jan Walencik
Cinematography: Jan Walencik, Krystian Matysek
Sound: Bożena Walencik, Jan Walencik, Ewa Salecka
Editing: Bożena Walencik, Jan Walencik
Sound engineering: Włodzimierz Kazimierczak
Assistant: Krzysztof Komar
Music: Ireneusz Dreger
Lectors: Krystyna Czubówna, Bengt Scotland
Production organization: Sławomir Boniecki
Scientific consultation: Janusz Faliński, Krystyna Falińska, Jerzy Gutowski, Bogumiła Jędrzejewska, Włodzimierz Jędrzejewski, Amelia Kawecka, Simona Kossak, Czesław Okołów, Zdzisław Pucek, Stefan Sikora, Aleksander Sokołowski, Ludwik Tomiałojć, Wiesław Walankiewicz, Tomasz Wesołowski
Co-operation: Białowieża National Park

TVP 1 would like to thank for help during the production of the film: employees of the Białowieża National Park, employees of the Białowieża Geobotanical Station of the University of Warsaw, employees of the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Białowieża, employees of the Institute of Natural Forests of the Forest Research Institute in Białowieża, employees of the Białowieża Forest District, employees of the Browsk Forest District, employees of the Hajnówka Forest District, Białowieża Forest National Park – Belarus, Border Guard Guards in Białowieża, R. E. and H. Z. Z. PAN Research Station in Popielno, Zoological Gardens in Warsaw, Poznań, Kraków and Bydgoszcz, Inhabitants of Białowieża and Hajnówka

Producer: Telewizja Polska S.A. (Polish Television)
Lead time: 1993–1995
End of production: 1995
Revitalization to HD: 2014

Frames from the film (QUOTES).

In the middle of The Old Continent, on the eastern borders of Poland and the western borderlands of Belarus, the heartbeat of the primeval forest beats. Uninterrupted for several thousand years. In the abundant, dim greenness the same backwoods are still crossed by the emperors of the Forest – European bison. As in the times of King Jagiełło, as in the times of Mendog. The only remnant of truly primeval forests that once covered the European lowlands – the Biosphere Reserve and Human Heritage – the eternal Białowieża Primeval Forest.

QUOTE. Excerpt from the film Heartbeat of the Primeval Forest. Part II. Never-ending Rivalry. Directed by Bożena Walencik, Jan Walencik. Source: TVP.

Part of the series about forest plants – producers of green matter. Hurricane in the Forest. The storm breaks and topples trees. A desolate stand of trees – the landscape after the battle. Presenters depict the gathering of the bodies of fallen and broken trees as a place where life will be reborn. A peculiar race to the top begins, as a crowd of seeds – future trees – takes off. In subsequent scenes, the authors prove that – in a sense – the most important thing in the Forest is… the leaf! They draw attention to the vastness of the green mass of the Białowieża Forest, call it a natural food factory. They reveal as a living green hell and paradise at the same time, abundant in moisture, in life-giving water, used lustily by plants. They reveal how, in the eternal cycles of birth and death, in the cycles of the annual spring explosion, plants create and struggle.