One Forest
One Forest was shot in the Bialowieza forest, which is the last remaining primeval forest, a unique ecological system that is 8000 years old. Ecologists compare it to the Amazon’s rainforest, as a rich and regenerating biosphere. It is a multy-layered forest, consisting of a variety of dead trees and plants that allow the organic persistence of life. Many cultures lived in it, around it and grow from it. Lithuanian princes, Polish kings and Russian Tsars kept the forest as their favorite hunting grounds. Herman Guring, Hitler’s deputy, planned to make it the world’s largest hunting territory. He used to hunt there himself. In WWII under Nazi occupation, mass executions took place among the hundred year old oaks. Jews and Partisans took shelter deep in the forest’s lush vegetation. In 1991 the leaders of Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine signed an agreement there according to which “the USSR as a geographical entity ceases to exist” Today the Bialowieza forest is stretched between Poland and Belarus. The border between them, cutting through the forest, is the new E.U eastern border.
Evron Nir
