Bruno Manser Laki Penan – Kampf um den Regenwald
Germany 2007

Opening 29 Nov 2007

Directed by: Christoph Kühn
Writing credits: Christoph Kühn

Swiss documentary filmmaker Christoph Kühn presents Bruno Manser, a Swiss explorer who lived from 1984-1990 with the natives of Penan, Borneo. Manser learned their language and culture and lived their lives, including food, housing, clothing and daily habits. The natives accepted him completely, calling him Laki Penan or Penan man. This submersion into a primitive culture was always Manser’s childhood dream, one which many people have, but few realize. Kühn travelled to Borneo and met native residents who remembered Manser. But perhaps the greatest source of information was Manser’s own diary with drawings, photographs and films of people, animals, plants, and immediate environment. He was a talented artist. Back in Switzerland, after seven years in Borneo, Manser demonstrated against logging companies which were scalping the land in Borneo to the detriment of its inhabitants. He was very visible, often through dangerous, publicity-seeking escapades including a hunger strike and a parachute jump over Geneva. In 2000 Bruno Manser returned to Penan and set out on a trek which he had mastered once before. This time he did not return and was never found and is assumed dead. This film rightly showed at the 2007 Filmfest Hamburg. (Becky Tan)