Frozen Planet (2011)

Directed by: Chadden Hunter, Dan Rees, Elizabeth White, Jeff Wilson, Simon Nash | 289 minutes | documentary

Few environments on Earth place more demands on their inhabitants than Antarctica and the Arctic. Only the toughest animals and plants can survive in these often icy and hostile ecosystems. Yet both poles together harbor more than enough fascinating life forms to produce many hours of eye-wateringly beautiful film material. Remarkably, the Antarctic and Arctic wildernesses owe their pristine pristine nature in large part to the extreme climatic conditions that prevail at the extreme southern and northern points of the planet. Because of the weather and the difficult accessibility of the terrain, the polar regions are the pre-eminent areas where man has not yet been able to give full rein to his urge to expand. So many ecological delicacies that David Attenborough, the grand old man of British wildlife film, and the film crews of the BBC’s renowned natural history department were able to indulge in during the making of the ambitious and very expensive nature series ‘Frozen Planet’. The viewing figures prove that there is an audience in Europe for beautiful nature films about the polar regions: in Great Britain, more than eight million viewers per episode tuned in to the series. In the Netherlands, too, the first episode was good for nearly two million viewers, significantly more than a traditional, Dutch viewing figure cannon such as ‘Good times, bad times’.

‘Frozen Planet’ is a series that can compete with earlier famous monster productions such as ‘Planet Earth’, ‘Life’ or ‘Human Planet’ in terms of epic eloquence and visual mastery. In concrete terms, this means that the viewer can look forward to interesting and often astonishing examples of animal behaviour, beautiful panoramas and every now and then also the heartbreaking scenes that are inextricably linked to the ancient battle between predator and prey. Consider, for example, the relentless hunting strategies used by the cunning killer whales, the largest dolphins in the world, to capture minke whales and Wedell seals. Or what about the epic battle between a she-wolf and a bison, a struggle that shows the primordial instinct for survival of both animals. It is precisely the fact that as a spectator that you know very well that the loser of the parallel battle scene, accompanied by a lot of drama, is doomed, which makes this fragment so penetrating and compelling. But the tender side of nature is also addressed in ‘Frozen Planet’, for example in the form of polar bear cubs romping with their mother or caring penguin parents who brave the most appalling weather conditions with brilliance and an astonishing self-sacrifice to raise their offspring. . The beautiful classical soundtrack, appropriately surrounded with the necessary bombast, fits in most cases excellently with the images shown.

The educational content of ‘Frozen Planet’ is a bit in stark contrast to that of a series like ‘Planet Earth’, but nevertheless you can learn a lot from this series as well. Despite all the praise, ‘Frozen Planet’ was also the center of a small scandal after its release when it turned out that certain images of a couple of young polar bears had not been recorded at the North Pole but in the Rhenense Ouwehands Zoo. The BBC’s defense has been that it is simply impossible to film young polar bears in the wild in their winter den, mainly due to the weather conditions and the protective nature of the mother bear, an animal that will fight anything that gets too close. near her sprouts. In addition to the animals, ‘Frozen Planet’ also paints a fine portrait of the few people who inhabit the poles and in the final episode the series examines the consequences of climate change on the coldest regions of the planet. Remarkably enough, that last episode was not released or only optionally released in certain countries. After all, climate change is still regarded in some circles as a diabolical conspiracy of the political left. The BBC’s decision angered some environmental groups, mainly because it would send a signal that the broadcaster is putting commercial interests ahead of journalistic and scientific independence.

You could consider the ‘polar bear incident’ as a blemish on the beautiful blazon of the BBC, but that does not alter the fact that the British state broadcaster has once again delivered a monumental nature series with ‘Frozen Planet’ that is not to be missed for the real enthusiast.