Poland’s wild East
Where bison and beaver say hello
Eastern Poland is one of Europe’s last truly wild regions. Animals that have long since disappeared elsewhere can be found here. Around 1.500 bison, huge and tenacious wild cattle, live in the primeval forest of Białowieża, on the border between Poland and Belarus.
The Biebrza lowlands make up the biggest national park in Poland and are of the utmost value for beavers, otters and countless aquatic birds. But, here too, nature is in danger. Motorways and intensive agriculture are oblivious to nature in Eastern Poland. Yet still, nature shows its many faces and a richness of species unparalleled anywhere in Europe.
Just how much space we allow the animals of Poland’s wild East and what the future may hold for them is almost entirely up to us. In Eastern Poland, bison, wolves, moose and all the others could have good chances of survival.
For us, the Poland film was a last-minute corona project; we had to interrupt our Namibia two-parter due to the pandemic. So instead of sweating under Africa’s sun, we shivered in the icy Polish winter at below -20 degrees and let ourselves be bitten by swarms of mosquitoes in the sultry summer. The result is a varied portrait in lush images of eastern Poland and its wildlife through the seasons.