Swiss Review 1/2021

Swiss Review / February 2021 / No.1 21 talk about tropical forests. On set, the inhabitants told of the life of Bruno Manser and their fight to prevent the destruction of their natural habitat. Themajority of those involved come from a Borneo tribe called the Day- aks, located in Indonesia, because filming in Malaysia was prohibited by the authorities of the state of Sa- rawak. Actors playing themselves To stay as true as possible to the story, director Niklaus Hilber from Zurich convinced eightmembers of theMal- aysian Penan tribe (the tribe with which Bruno Manser had lived) to participate in the film. This choice meant flying via Jakarta, as the Indo- nesian Dayak tribe live 200 kilome- tres away from the Penan. Amongst the actors in this tribe, were Nick Ke- lesau, who plays the role of Along Sega. This Penan chief had adopted Bruno Manser and described him as “a child in an adult’s body”. Kelesau knew Manser when he was a child. The actor Sven Schelker, who plays Bruno Manser and speaks in the Penan language, touched the heart of the adventurer’s sister, Monika Nie- derberger. “At times, I really saw Bruno standing in front of me, even if Sven is taller and slimmer,” she says. She remembers her excitement whenBrunowould take her onwalks through the forests of Basel, lifting up rocks to find insects or a lizard. “This film ismy life’s work,” states Valentin Greutert. “It tells the story of humanity. We discover how the nomadic Penan tribe have lived for thousands of years and how capita- lism, hungry for resources, has swal- lowed their forest. It’s also the legacy of a man, as it is the commitment of Bruno Manser which has led to defo- restation being written into the glo- bal political agenda.” The strength of the film is built on the actors’ identi- ficationwith their own story. As such, scenes where the Penan construct barricades led the actors to relive moments they had effectively expe- rienced in their own lives. In the jungle of Borneo, onemem- ber of the team had known Manser well: Kasper Müller, an economist and former president of Ethos, a Swiss foundation for sustainable de- velopment. Originally from Basel, Müller became close friends with Manser towards the end of the 1990s. Since Manser’s disappearance in 2000, this man has represented the rights of the adventurer and his fa- mily. “In Borneo, I saw why Bruno was so happy here, with the Penan, at least until the illegal logging began,” he explains. The economist, who chairs the Commission for Sustain- able Development for Basel Kanto- nalbank and Banque Cler, finds that the film“really shows the systematic connections between our economic system and those of the tribes of the primary forests, as well as how the motive of profit develops new me- thods for accessing natural resour- ces”. In this configuration, “the ene- mies of the forest are everywhere, and they don’t even know it,” notes Roger Graf, the director of the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) in the film. The filmpresents a romanticised version of a life story worthy of a no- vel. There is the love affair between Manser and a member of the Penan tribe, for example. The meeting in New York between Manser and the Secretary-General of the United Na- tions, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, never took place. Ditto for the attempt to obtain the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) label, which would protect the forests of Borneo. “Bruno Manser had contact with the ITTO, but he didn’t believe in labels,” explains Lukas Straumann, director of the BMF, who asked do- nors to help complete production. “The film allows young people to dis- cover Bruno Manser, a modern-day hero,” he says. Regarding the Sarawak forests, 90 per cent of them have disappea- red since the 1970s. The timber pro- duced represents a value of over 50 billion dollars, according to the BMF. Is all lost? No. Secondary forests have regrown. And the tribes of Borneo now defend their living space using geographical maps, notably created with support from the BMF. Environmental acti- vist Bruno Manser during the time he lived with the Penan in Borneo. Archive photo: Keystone, 1990