ORF-E
English
1 x 52 min
Worldwide

Over the course of years, we follow the dramatic life of Gober, the orang-utan mother. This is a scarcely believable but true story from Sumatra, the large Indonesian island. Gober is first noticed by conservationists when she struggles to meet her daily nutritional needs. It soon becomes clear that she is suffering from creeping sight loss, and her daughter will still be dependent on her for years to come. The observers are all the more astounded when the little one eventually begins to take care of herself and her mother. Her desperate search for food takes her ever more frequently to the oil palm plantations. However, hungry orang-utans find little sympathy in this death zone. In view of their declining prospects of survival, the conservationists see only one option: to bring the two of them to a rescue centre. However, the daughter will not let herself be captured and remains behind in the forest. But who can take away the pain of an intelligent and sensitive orang-utan at the loss of her child? Out of sympathy, Gober is allowed to become pregnant again. The father is another blind orang-utan who was shot at on a plantation and who now too is eking out his life in a cage. That Gober is an excellent mother is demonstrated when she brings twins into the world in the centre. Her cataracts are removed in an operation and, with the return of her eyesight, Gober sees her two children for the first time. And that is not all. The reintroduction to the wild in one of the last safe forests in Sumatra is possible. However completely unexpectedly, her son shies away from the wilderness. Will Gober suffer another tragic loss of a child – or is it finally a stroke of good fortune? In front of the eyes of her rescuers, her daughter conquers the tops of the jungle giants alongside her mother – as if they had always been her home.