ORF-E
English
3 x 52 mins
Worldwide except for Germany and France

Border rivers separate but also bring people and cultures together. Some are impenetrable, some are common lifelines. People, towns and landscapes have been shaped by this contradiction for centuries. This series of films unveils three border rivers in Europe, all of which were scarred by turbulent History. Their waters reflect the polyphonic and often contradictory conceptions of those for whom these rivers are idyllic lifelines. Every film travels from the source to the estuary, and every river has its own temperament. The river Oder is a germano-polish river stageing amazonian landscape in its lower course. It’s one of the last free flowing, natural rivers at the heart of Europe. Right in the north of Europe, the river Tana keeps Finland and Norway apart. A remote natural paradise, which hides under snow and ice for eight months a year. In the summer, seals and rare bird species compete for the best spots on the sandbanks by its delta. And it is amidst the last european beech jungle in the world that the ukrainian carpathian river Prut rises – 700 kilometers away from the borders of Europe, between the Vltava and Romania. It is one of the smallest border rivers of Europe, but it also remains one of the most guarded ones.