AMONG CANNIBALS
HOW WALLACE WAS DARWIN‘S BRAIN
DOCU-DRAMA
When Alfred Russel Wallace set foot on a ship in 1854 to explore Papua New Guinea, he could not imagine that would spend 8 years abroad. He collected 125,000 animals exhibits and survived by selling butterfly collections and stuffed orangutans to European museums. Wallace had not the support of a university or had generous research budgets, that could finance the adventurous expedition of the self-made scientist.
Yet Wallace had already accomplished some priceless important work during his six year journey over the Amazons and had discovenewred endless new animal species. In Borneo and in other Malay-Indonesian islands Wallace was moving in the dangerous land of the Dayaks, the local headhunters. Wallace did find a way to relate to them and actually convinced them to help him collect the exhibits. Wallace´s pioneering discoveries eventually became part of the evolution theory.
Wallace wrote down his theories while he had malaria fever and sent them to England to Charles Darwin, who was then already quite well known. One year later Darwin claimed that he had come to the same conclusions himself and presented the sensational evolution theory. Wallace was left only the with the posthumous reputation to have invented „biogeography“. Today many historians believe that Darwin stole the most important facts about the evolution theory from Wallace´s experiences in the virgin forests. This was probably the biggest theft in the history of science.
While Darwin was becoming a superstar, Wallace kept on surviving in Borneo by hunting orangutans which were highly requested in Europe. Trying to raise the baby of the orangutan mother who had been shot down changed Wallace´s thinking completely. Yet hunting orangutans still goes on.
2003 Danish Lone Dröscher-Nielsen is fighting to protect the last orangutans. She is taking care of 250 orangutans in her vet clinic near Palangka Raya, at the edge of the rain forest in Borneo. 50 of them are babies. The Dutch Bos Foundation and his starter Willie Smits finance Lone and the over 70 workers at the orangutan orphan asylum. Most orangutan babies have lost their mother because the headhunters do no longer hunt humans but even more so „woodsmen“ – as orangutan means in the Dayak language. The helpless babies reach Lone Dröscher-Nielsen´s camp, if they are lucky. From there they get trained to get back to the forest, or what is left of it.
Yet Wallace had already accomplished some priceless important work during his six year journey over the Amazons and had discovenewred endless new animal species. In Borneo and in other Malay-Indonesian islands Wallace was moving in the dangerous land of the Dayaks, the local headhunters. Wallace did find a way to relate to them and actually convinced them to help him collect the exhibits. Wallace´s pioneering discoveries eventually became part of the evolution theory.
Wallace wrote down his theories while he had malaria fever and sent them to England to Charles Darwin, who was then already quite well known. One year later Darwin claimed that he had come to the same conclusions himself and presented the sensational evolution theory. Wallace was left only the with the posthumous reputation to have invented „biogeography“. Today many historians believe that Darwin stole the most important facts about the evolution theory from Wallace´s experiences in the virgin forests. This was probably the biggest theft in the history of science.
While Darwin was becoming a superstar, Wallace kept on surviving in Borneo by hunting orangutans which were highly requested in Europe. Trying to raise the baby of the orangutan mother who had been shot down changed Wallace´s thinking completely. Yet hunting orangutans still goes on.
2003 Danish Lone Dröscher-Nielsen is fighting to protect the last orangutans. She is taking care of 250 orangutans in her vet clinic near Palangka Raya, at the edge of the rain forest in Borneo. 50 of them are babies. The Dutch Bos Foundation and his starter Willie Smits finance Lone and the over 70 workers at the orangutan orphan asylum. Most orangutan babies have lost their mother because the headhunters do no longer hunt humans but even more so „woodsmen“ – as orangutan means in the Dayak language. The helpless babies reach Lone Dröscher-Nielsen´s camp, if they are lucky. From there they get trained to get back to the forest, or what is left of it.
Shot at original locations in Sydney, Coffs Harbour (Australia), Kalimantan, Borneo (Indonesia)
First aired on 21stSeptember 2003, 19.30 pm, ZDF
Written, directed and produced by: Petra Höfer and Freddie Röckenhaus
Cast: Peter Barron (Wallace), Kenneth Moraleda (sein Assistent Ali)
Director of Photography: Johannes Imdahl, Thomas Schäfer
Video Editor: Jörg Wegner
Field Producer: Gisela Kaufmann, Lilliana Gibbs
Narration: Benjamin Völz
Commissioning Editors: Alexander Hesse (ZDF)
A colourFIELD production