The silver screen comes to the jungle

May 03, 2013

Disney presents the lives of chimpanzees in the wild on the big screen – with the help of primatology researchers from Leipzig. Tobias Deschner reports on the experience of working with the camera team and the animal protagonists.

The contrast could not be greater: the modern office building of the Max Planck Society in Munich, which Tobias Deschner visited for the first time shortly before his most recent trip to the Côte d’Ivoire, and Taï National Park, a tropical rain forest, which he has known for 13 years and is completely familiar to him. His suitcases were already packed when he presented his report on the film shoot in the jungle at MPG Headquarters.

The Max Planck researchers’ camp near the border to Liberia is a twelve-hour car journey from the seaport of Abidjan, three of which involve travelling along a mud road from the nearest village. The Disney team working with director Alastair Fothergill and camera operator Martyn Colbeck built a new, more comfortable hut beside the scientists’ quarters and moved in with 1000 kilogrammes of equipment, mattresses, mosquito nets, candles, generators and numerous boxes of food. It took two-and-a-half years to film “Chimpanzee” in the vicinity of the research station; in the meantime, another team recorded material for the film in Ngogo in the Kibale National Park in Uganda.

The encounter between the scientists, the filmmakers and chimpanzees took place very far away from civilisation. From the outset, the agenda was set by the film’s animal protagonists. “The chimpanzees here all have names and very individual personalities,” says Deschner. The jungle worked against the filmmakers at the start: some of the animals that were “cast” by film director Fothergill and Max Planck research Director Christophe Boesch shunned the cameras and refused to be filmed. For example, the proud lady chimpanzee Sumatra, a diva with real star quality, refused to tolerate any kind of fuss around her. Persistent rain frequently pounded down on the guests and the dense vegetation, and difficult light conditions made filming very difficult.

 A frenzy of activity from dawn to dusk

The film team gained access to the animals through the Max Planck scientists. Equipped with headlamps, the latter set off before daybreak to look for the chimpanzees’ sleep nests. They maintained contact with the camera crew via walkie-talkies and told them where to go. For up to two hours they waded through swampy ground, clambered over gigantic roots, and tore and scratched their arms on thorny palm trees. “If you don’t arrive before the chimpanzee group wakes up, you’ve already lost them,” says Deschner. When the animals start looking for food, things move very quickly. “It’s a frenzy of activity from early in the morning to late in the evening,” he explains. And the reward for the early start is front row seats to the entire performance.

Strict rules were imposed for the encounters with the animals: no eye contact, no rapid movements, no talking or even eating near the animals, a distance of seven metres had to be maintained at all times and mouth masks had to be worn to protect the chimpanzees against human pathogens. The resulting film, which has already captivated audiences in the US, betrays no hint of the difficulties encountered during shooting. On the contrary, it makes the process look easy, even leisurely: young chimpanzees chase and tickle each other and ruffle each other’s hair. They strike each other’s fingers while trying to crack a Panda nut. The adult animals show their young how best to fish army ant eggs out of nests, and how to transform Parinari fruit to a soft pulp between their lips. And, of course, the film presents a less scientific, but highly cinematic fight between the “good guys”, represented by alpha male Freddy and his group, and the “bad guys”, the rival group led by Scar. “The fight never took place in this form. The groups would not have been able to confront each other in this way,” says Deschner, spilling the beans: Freddy’s group is based in Taï National Park, while Scar and his gang live in Ngogo in Kibale National Park in Uganda.


Adoption in the jungle

However, the real star of the film is Oscar. The young male chimpanzee loses his mother Isha in the film when she is killed by a leopard. He finds a strong protector in Freddy, the alpha male, who helps him to survive in the jungle.

Christophe Boesch and his team have already observed 18 comparable adoptions of young animals in Taï National Park. Despite already having their hands full with their own offspring, two breastfeeding mothers adopted a second child. Around half of the adoptive parents were males, however. The fact that such a spectacular case occurred in front of the camera is one of the very special moments experienced by a film director. “Male chimpanzees are usually very macho and do not tend to bother very much with their own young,” says Deschner. However, in Taï National Park they become astonishingly considerate in their role as adoptive fathers: they carry the small chimps on their backs, groom their hair and provide them with food.

Tobias Deschner is always surprised at how little people know about the lives of our closest relatives in the animal world: for example, how complex their social lives are and how well they cooperate with each other. “We usually only experience these amazing animals in the zoo.” For this reason, Tobias Deschner is happy that the film presenting the lives of chimpanzees in the wild will now be shown in German cinemas: “I very much hope that the viewers will develop an attachment to the animals and will help us to protect this endangered species.”

BA

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