In southern Germany, winter can still be admired in all its glory every year. With its white coat of snow and icicles and myriads of small crystals that look like geometric works of art. In the valleys and on the slopes the snow is still so thick every year that the alpine huts are snowed in up to the windows. Cows and dairymen are safe in their farms at lower altitudes. But not the wild creatures of the mountains! They need strategies to survive the cold season and to defy snow masses, cold and ice. And some seem to do it so easily that they even raise their young in the middle of winter. But how do animals, plants and fungi cope with the annually recurring ice age, which from our perspective is a time of need? The many adaptations in nature prove that winter is an integral part of the natural cycle of the year and the living environment of species. They are adapted to cold and frost. That is why the animals and plants at the edge of the Alps suffer particularly from climate change!
A climbing champion is pushed to her limits when she takes on a perilous new route to the summit of the Alps.
In the middle of the French Alps, some adventurers balance themselves on slacklines high above the ground.
In the Bernese Alps, the Agassizhorn peak memorialises Louis Agassiz – a controversial 19th-century scientist, who not only named the mountain after himself, but who claimed he had discovered the Ice Age and went on to become one of the century's most virulent, most influential racists.
When the snow melts and the hills of Appenzell are dotted with green and white, buckets of water slowly make their way up and down the slope. After a time, the gentle movement turns into violent swaying. Shots ring through the air, the buckets are punctured. Slowly the water begins to flow. This is the high point of a ritual that begins deep within the bowels of the mountain. Then trails of water spurt through the air to the thawing slopes and the water begins to gush, nearly causing the well in the valley to overflow.
That of the Gran Sasso and Laga mountains, in the heart of the Abruzzo Apennines, is a particular story. Exploited beyond all limits for grazing, they have now returned to repopulate with plants and animals, thanks to the National Park and its care for the territory. Let's go and discover their new life.
Postwar life of eight remaining inhabitants of Strmec, a village located in the very corner of Slovenian Alps near Italian border. When local partisans killed a German officer, the Nazi occupiers shot all males in the village as an act of revenge; those who remained are seven women of different age who traditionally wear black scarves, and young boy who hasn't any friends to play with.
A post-WW2 story about the village largely involved in wine-making business. The peasants who claimed possessions of lands, woods, and churches after communist party seized the power hold a party where a member of so-called reactionary forces (kulaks, clergy and Axis collaborators) tries to break in and stop it.
The traditional healers in the Swiss and French mountains.
Erjavec family (dad, mom, daughter, son) go camping in Slovenian Alps. Instead of a peaceful vacation, they end up involved in detective kind of story.
The Grand paradis is said to be one of the easiest four-thousanders and that is the one choosen by Carole Dechantre to share with the famous alpinist Jean Troillet.
Violanta lives with her parents in a poor cottage in the mountains in Austria. Her family is frowned upon by the local population since her father is a drunk and suspected by the villagers to have caused the death of one of the farmers. One day handsome Marianus Renner comes along. He sees Violanta and immediately starts courting her, They become involved in a relationship, until one day he suddenly does not come to her usual appointment.
Filmmaker Claudia Hefner showcases the Kramerterhof, an Alpine estate which Sepp Holzer has transformed from an ordinary farm into a paragon of permaculture. Spectacular aerial photography helps viewers to appreciate the magnificence of the landscape and the efficiency of the property.
Sepp Holzer explains some of the innovative, labour-saving agricultural techniques he applies at his farm in the Eastern Alps of Salzburg, Austria.
A documentary about the Liechtenstein football team, one of the Europe's ultimate underdogs.
Little Cesario, a clumsy, and not too bright, St. Bernard puppy, is the junior member of a family of decorated life-savers.
For ages, the highest mountains in Europe have been a strong barrier right in the middle of Europe. At the same, the Alps are a world of fascinating adventures awaiting you. In this film, you will make a special journey across the Alps and you will see a diversity of mountain landscapes on unique images. We will take you to the crystal clear lakes of the Salzkammergut area, to the blooming green Alpine pastures and ice-covered, unfriendly peaks all in breathtaking 3D.
