WILD POETRY: GUADALQUIVIR, The Great River (Spain Wildlife film)

The scriptwriter of the film Fernando Lopez-Mirones

Photo: Rafael Perezaguas & Maca del Cabo

This is the story of a river in southern Europe that brings together a wider variety of animals than any other. [...]

From forests high in the mountains to flatlands and wetlands that seem set in Africa.

On its banks, geography seems to make no sense because species from very distant worlds gather there.[...]

Guided by the water that keeps them alive, the inhabitants of the Great River of Andalusia coexist with life and death in a game that never ends.[...]

But this is Spain, and the Mediterranean sun gives the prisoners of the forest a reprieve. Although the weather’s still cold, the snow doesn’t last long. Nevertheless, for some it’s already too late. The snow storm claimed a red deer hind, and as it melts, the white mantle is pulled back to reveal the gift of its body, sending messages out on the wind.[...]

We are in the land of the Tartessians, the Turta, the herdsmen who raised red bulls. They wore helmets with horns like those attributed to the Vikings and offered their bronze swords and shields to the water. The same water in which these black storks are resting during their migration from Africa.[...]

Above mosquitos are springing up. Centuries ago they spread malaria here, even forcing the Spaniards to abandon the castles and fortresses. One of these little insects was responsible for the death of the greatest emperor Man has never known, Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire and I of the Spanish Empire.[...]

Doñana, the dream of a river.

The Guadalquivir’s wetlands are the most important bird sanctuary on the continent, where close to a million birds belonging to more than 300 species spend the winter, breed, or pass through every year, making this estuary Europe’s largest ecological reserve.

The purple heron is one of them.[...]

Legend has it that the Sun represents Truth, and that if you fly too close to it your wings will burn and you will fall back to Earth. That’s why their feathers burn as they fly over Doñana, and the reason why flamingos represent resurrection. Their name comes from the Latin word flamma, which means “flame”.[...]

(Scriptwriter: Fernando López-Mirones

from the narration of the film)