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TONG TANA The Lost Paradise 2001 80 min. 35 mm.

In November 2000 two months after we finished filming, Bruno Manser the main character of the film were reported missing in the Borneo jungle. No trace of him has since then been found. Most probably he was murdered.

Producer Jan Röed, Erik Pauser. Directors Jan Röed, Erik Pauser, Björn Cederberg. Cinematography Jan Röed. Editor Niels Pagh Andersen. Production company Charon film. Released in cinema and TV in Sweden, TV in Denmark, Finland Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Austria and Poland. Produced in cooperation with TV4 Sweden, Swedish film institute, Bayerischer Rundfunk, NRK, YLE 2, SBS Australian and others. First prize at the FICA filmfestival in Goiana Brazil 2002.

This film is a follow up of a film also made by Charon film in 1989 called Tong Tana - A journey to the heart of Borneo. The first film was about one of the greatest ecological catastrophes of our time, the destruction of the world's oldest rainforest. It was also a film about one of the last nomadic tribes on earth, the Penans who have lived in the same way for thousands of years. A Swiss, Bruno Manser was living with them. At the time, he had been in the jungle for six years. He was hunted by 200 Malaysian commandos, with a bounty on his head of 100 000 Malaysian dollars, dead or alive. Bruno was known as the “wild man of Borneo”. Local newspapers painted him as a kind of terrorist and stories circulated in the coastal towns of the “white raja of the jungle” carried around on a bamboo throne. Less was said of the real threat to the Penans, the relentless felling of the rain forest. Bruno returned to Switzerland 1990 after six years with the Penans convinced he could be of more use from the outside giving voice to the Penans and their struggle to survive.

Local newspapers painted him as a kind of terrorist and stories circulated in the coastal towns of the “white raja of the jungle” carried around on a bamboo throne. Less was said of the real threat to the Penans, the relentless felling of the rain forest. Bruno returned to Switzerland 1990 after six years with the Penans convinced he could be of more use from the outside giving voice to the Penans and their struggle to survive.

Bruno Manser prepares the long journey into Sarawak to meet up with his Penan friends

For almost ten years, Bruno traveled the world, collecting money and staging spectacular actions, giving interviews to CNN and the BBC. He also met influential politicians and celebrities such as Al Gore and Prince Charles. Even Steven Spielberg called and wanted to make a film about him. However, Bruno said no. To his horror Bruno realized how slow the political machine can be, caught up in its own intrigues and plots. He also realized that his struggle made little difference, the logging continued and the situation for the Penans became more and more desperate. Sixteen years have passed since the first time he saw the virgin rainforest. He was then a romantic who dreamt about the simple way of the nomadic people of the rainforest. He had himself left home at 18 to live as a nomadic sheepherder in the Swiss Alps. He was looking for his roots away from a civilization that he felt had nothing to offer him. Next step was a journey to Borneo. Once inside the rainforest he got to know the mysterious forest-people, the Penan, one of the worlds' last remaining nomadic tribes, so shy that very few outsiders have met them. This is where Bruno wanted to live. “I went to Borneo with sentimental dreams of the noble savage, but gradually became involved in politics as the logging increased” Bruno returned to Switzerland convinced he could be of more use from the outside. But what he really wanted to do was to continue his life with the Penans.

After ten years in the west with little success to raise the Penan and the rainforest issue Bruno decides to leave and return for good to the Penans. If nothing else he would face the end with his Penan friends. On Borneo, Bruno is still a wanted man. His only chance of getting back in is through Indonesia illegally. This means a long journey by river followed by a three-week trek over the border through unexplored terrain, where his only chance of a meal is the wild game he might be lucky enough to catch.

Penans blocking logging road
Bruno Manser with Penan chief Along Sega 2000
Bruno Manser, 1991
Bruno Manser, 2000
Channel 4. The news that Bruno is missing in the rainforest.
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