Apart from climatic change and the loss of bio diversity, desert emerging rapidly and globally are considered as the third big environmental problem of the planet.
The film shows extent, causes and consequences of desertification in different parts of the world. With rather personal scenes and in a soft narration the film focuses on the daily life of affected families in Burkina Faso, Turkmenistan, Spain and in India. These sequences change with rather thematic "windows", which expose history, politics, causes and consequences of desertification.
The film shows how dramatically desert emerge and grow. According to the UN 30 % of arable land world wide are already degraded due to desertification, an area three times the size of Europe. 250 million people in 110 countries are affected. It is estimated that land desolation threatens the nourishment of every sixth human being. The film shows the mechanism of desertification in the Sahel, illustrates the drastic effects of wrongly planned land use in the former Soviet Union and displays the consequences in Mumbai, India. In Spain the film shows that developed countries are affected, too. A poverty alleviation project in the Indian state of Maharashtra proves that it is possible to combat desertification.

Dragon boat racing became a international sport in the 1980s and has since found followers in more than 40 countries. But nowhere are the boat races more spectacular than in China, the home of the dragons. As the old Southern Chinese saying goes, "We would rather not till our soil than lose the dragon boat race". Therefore, in many regions the fifth month of the moon calendar is a month of rowing, where people meet and compete almost daily on rivers and canals.
The film sets out on a quest for historic traces in Miluo, allegedly the place of origin of dragon boat racing, shows the construction of dragon boats in a private factory and joins the rowing team of the small village of Shigandong in the Province Guangdong. It was produced for SWR, Spiele der Welt (Games of the world)

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan became sovereign states. In 1991, this led to the rise of a "new" region located between China and the Caspian Sea.
Central Asia is a multicultural area and a geo-political hot spot, a supranational region full of natural resources and bitter poverty. Five countries and 55 million people seeking a new identity somewhere between Soviet heritage, "go west" spirit and Islamic resurgence. Short portrayals of five people help the film create a mosaic image of a region undergoing a difficult transformation.
Take 17-year old Sergej from the Kazakhstani industrial centre Almaty. Sergej loves techno music and wants to work in a hotel. His mother however, finds the new times unfair.
In the mountains of Kyrgyzstan we meet the veterinary doctor Monolbai. On horseback he travels to the mountain shepherds who suffered financial misery after the introduction of the new market economy.
In Central Asia Islam is experiencing a resurgence after the suppression of the Soviet era. In Bukhara, the old Silk Road trading centre now located in Uzbekistan, the film introduces Mohammed, a student of the distinguished madrese Mir-i Arab.
The Soviets diverted the rivers for their enormous mono-culture cotton plantations, triggering one of the world's greatest environmental disasters. Now the Aral Sea is dying. A doctor tells the story.
In Tajikistan finally the film accompanies the reporter Gulos travelling through the poorest and most remote region in Central Asia. In the mountains of the Pamir range - until recently staging a civil war - Gulos recounts the change from emergency aid to self-help.

The Dominican Republic, 9 million people, an island in the Carribean Sea. Tropical sun and affordable prices make the island a top destination for all-inclusive-tourists. They pay for everything in advance – and rarely leave the hotel compound. So they know little or next to nothing about the “real” Dominican Republic and the life of it’s people.

The film tells stories about the life beyond the beaches. The film shows people like blind Roberto, a farmer whose fields hardly sustain him and his family anymore. So he thinks about leaving his village for the big city – to try his luck as a musician. Or there is Paulina: where she lives deforestation and overutilization made the tropical paradise look like a desert. We get to know Liku, a sugar cane cutter who came illegally from Haiti and Dominga, who makes her life in the capital Santo Domingo running a beauty saloon with an attached bar. The film shows young Joan, who wants nothing more than to get out of the shanty town where he is growing up and we accompany Jacqueline, a prostitute, who has learned not to hide anymore, but to stand up for herself.

The film is produced in co-operation with German Agro Action (Deutsche Welthungerhilfe) and the European Union
© 2004