'Okavango River of Dreams' to make African debut on Nat Geo Wild
Correspondent | Friday September 6, 2019 11:28
Part two and three will air at the same time on Friday and Saturday respectively.
The film series explores the interconnectivity of life in and around the Okavango River, which is described as one of the last truly wild places on the planet.
The journey of discovery along the Okavango takes you through a plethora of landscapes and wildlife, looking at how one element exists and feeds into the next. The story starts in Part 1 – Paradise in the Northern Okavango through to Part 2 – Limbo which follows the only river in the world that disappears into a desert rather than the ocean in Part 3 – Inferno.
It is essentially a mystical phenomenon as it is the only river that goes from nowhere, to nowhere…
For the filmmakers the four-year-filming project was as tumultuous an experience as it was rewarding, and this is depicted in the film.
“As with the process of making this series, the Okavango River itself is both beautiful and harsh and we show these paradoxes in the film,” said Beverly Joubert, who came within an inch of her life during the filming of Okavango River of Dreams when she was attacked by an injured buffalo and impaled on its horn.
For the Joubert’s this moment impacted the film-making process in terms of their interactions with the content but did not keep them away from their true passion, and before long these National Geographic explorers were back in the bush, behind their lenses to conclude this cinematic journey together.
“The Okavango is a special place, the diversity of life that interacts and survives by virtue of this river is spectacular. It is a depiction of the circle of life in its truest sense and it has been such an honour to be able to spend time understanding and interacting with nature in its raw, rugged and beautifully bare form,” said Dereck.