Nile – The ultimate River (2014 - 2014)

A few hundred kilometres after leaving Lake Victoria, the Nile plunges noisily over massive waterfalls and into the new territory of Murchison Falls National Park. Thousands of hippos enjoy the water. In the afternoons, elephant herds leave the savannah to drink and bathe. At the river banks, you can witness a curious partnership. Female crocodiles and tiny birds defend their eggs together against a thief, the Nile Monitor. The Nile’s greatest wilderness is situated in the crisis-torn South Sudan, where the river turns into the Sudd, Africa’s largest swamp. This is the perfect habitat for a fantastic variety of bird species, among them the extremely rare Shoebill. Giants, too, can make a living here. Some four hundred elephants live among the papyrus. With the help of a plucky helicopter pilot from Kenya, the film team succeeded in recording the great antelope migration of the South Sudan for the first time.

The Blue Nile is the White Nile’s most important tributary. Its source springs from the Ethiopian highlands, one of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet. The rocks and canyons of the Simien mountains are a vulture’s paradise and home to some rare animal species. The Walia Ibex and the fantastic Gelada are unique to the land of the Blue Nile. There used to be a Yellow Nile, too, originating in the Chad. This tributary to the Nile dried out some 6000 years ago, but at its source, there is still water and even a tiny lake, sustaining a species of crocodile not found elsewhere in Africa. The last stage of the Nile leads through Egypt, past temples and tombs. Today, more than 80 million people live in the delta, among them two brothers who earn a living by hunting the Egyptian cobra. Finally, the Nile loses its way in a vast delta streaked by countless channels and ends in the Mediterranean Sea.