AllMovie

Of all the forest-laden jungle locations in Southeast Asia, Maylasia's Borneo region was for a very long time one of the rainforests least damaged by the worldwide appetite for wood products. No longer. This documentary contrasts the earth-centered lives of the Penang, a rainforest tribe, through the daily life of a Swiss man (Bruno Manser) who has lived as one of them for many years. Contrasting with that is the work of government "environment" ministers and clear-cutters who will have destroyed their habitat in about five years' time. As is the case throughout the rest of the so-called third world, the job of environment ministers is to sell off "undeveloped" natural resources as swifly and lucratively as possible, on terms which benefit those who hold political power.