Green – Death of The Forests

This documentary is about a dying orangutan through the death of the habitat that supports her. Although the film is non-verbal and has no narration it is still very polemical, which it manages through juxtaposition of images.

It opens with an orangutan being transported across rough roads while encased in a restraining jacket. It is unclear what is going on, but we next see her lying in what is more or less a hospital bed being treated.

We never do find out how she came to this state, but we do see her – or perhaps other orangutans – in the wild, living in their natural state, and we also see the devastating encroachments of modern farming and industry.

Every year in Malaysia we suffer from a peculiar kind of smog – it is hoverng over the landscape now – and it covers the whole country (at least on the west coast) from Singapore to Thailand.

Where does it come from? It comes from Sumatra, which is where this film was shot, and it comes about because they are clearing the forests that are shown in this film. The post-nuclear like landscapes we see after the destruction speak for themselves.