Resilience: Czech documentary highlights efforts to save white-tailed eagles from illegal poisons
The Czech film Resilience, which its makers describe as a “documentary thriller”, enters domestic cinemas on Thursday. It tracks efforts to uncover the illegal poisoning of birds of prey – and shows the beauty of the country’s landscape, as well as its destruction.
Resilience focuses on two people with a love of the Czech countryside – and a strong dedication to protecting it.
Pavel mows spring meadows and works to restore wetlands damaged by drought and deforestation.
Klára, meanwhile, is a member of the Czech Ornithological Society and dog handler who tracks down those who illegally poison white-tailed eagles. Indeed, an average of 10 of these birds of prey die in this way – along with other protected animals – in Czechia every year.
Tomáš Elšík is the film’s director.
“For me it’s a big problem, because what we see is just the tip of the iceberg. So we see maybe 20 or 40 cases of poisoned animals, but in reality there are thousands of them and we see just a tiny part. And it’s closely linked to animal diversity.”
The documentary maker offers an explanation for this illegal poisoning, sometimes using carbofuran, a chemical banned in Czechia and the rest of the EU.
“Well, we have farmers and we have hunters and they try to protect their interests. There are plenty of legal ways to do it, but they decide to poison the animals. I don’t understand at all why somebody would do this, because for me a creature like the white-tailed eagle is untouchable.”
Elšík was also the cinematographer on Resilience. Some shots capture the minutest details of the landscape and wildlife. Others capture from a great height the destruction of forests in the Vysočina region by the bark beetle, while images of white-tailed eagles in flight are stunning.
“I wanted to show that we are just a part of the bigger system of nature. This is why I decided to make those ‘macro’ shots. Because I wanted to explain, or show, that if we just stop for a while and look close it can bring us something. The same goes for the wide, wide shots of the landscape – it’s the same principle.”
The documentary’s Czech title is Při zemi, which literally translates as Close to the Ground. Tomáš Elšík explains why he chose to employ such a different concept, Resilience, as the English title.
“People who are protecting nature are sometimes burnt out. It’s very hard sometimes. And we need to create something that is bigger and stronger. We can create a community and have a good feeling from protection. And this is a kind of resilience. It’s against the feeling that ‘I am alone’, which is not true. Maybe we are alone sometimes, but there are a lot of people who think like us.”
As well as entering domestic cinema distribution this week, Resilience will be screened at the Czech Embassy in Washington on March 26 and at the Czech Center New York three days later.
