Heartbeat of the Primeval Forest. Part III. Giants and Dwarfs
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 III. Giants and Dwarfs. Directed by Bożena Walencik, Jan Walencik. Source: TVP.
Bożena and Jan Walencik present the second element of the Forest’s food chain – adulterous organisms: herbivores. Undoubtedly, the largest of them are the European bison, called after the great poet Mickiewicz the emperors of the Primeval Forest. Presenters observe a large herd of these giants in winter, when they allow themselves to get quite close. They also follow them when the vegetation is in bloom. They prove that bison and other large mammals, are not at all the most important consumers of the Forest’s green mass. They present a whole plethora of rodents – from beavers to ubiquitous voles, and right after them an innumerable mass of herbivorous insects – as they say: an avalanche of dwarf gizzards. Finally, they present the non-green persecutors of the green, that is, fungi that parasitize plants.
On April 22, 1996, in Milano, Italy, at the 21st International Tourist Film Festival, Bożena and Jan Walencik received the award for best film in the Environment category for Heartbeat of the Primeval Forest. Part III. Giants and Dwarfs.