Heartbeat of the Primeval Forest. Part V. Living Network

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 V. Living Network. Directed by Bożena Walencik, Jan Walencik. Source: TVP.

In the last part of the series, the authors discover the world of reductants – organisms of the final link of the food chain, thanks to which organic matter re-enters the cycle and ensures the survival of the Forest. First, using the remains of a dead bison as an example, they show what happens to such a huge mass of matter. They show the various eaters of organic remains including the pariahs of the natural forest – thousands of fungi with a great multiplicity of forms. They present an aged, already dead Tsar Oak, and then lying giants – the bodies of trees in various stages of wood decay, and wood-decomposing organisms. They call the bottom of the Primeval Forest a living laboratory, a place where the decomposition of matter takes place, where the turning point of its transformation is, and from where new life returns, ensuring the continuance of the natural forest. In the final sequence of the last part, the presenters introduce a sort of afterword to the entire series. They show the role of humans in the Białowieża Forest, also playing the roles of some of our ancestors. In the finale, they return to the Strict Reserve of the Białowieża National Park, show the forest that once covered the lowlands of Europe, and today remains only here, like a lonely island in the ocean of civilization. They appeal to minds and hearts to protect this last sliver of the true European Primeval Forest.