Documentary has double significance for the UAE

Emirati filmmaker hopes film about successful royal project to reintroduce oryx into the wild will raise interest in nation's ecology and past.

ABU DHABI // The UAE's only entry in the environment category of the Middle East International Film Festival brings full circle a dream of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan, the founder of the nation, to replenish the dwindling stock of an animal vital to its heritage.

The Arabian Oryx - Freed Spirit of the Desert, which was screened yesterday, shows the release into the wild of 98 as part of the captive breeding programme Sheikh Zayed pioneered 30 years ago. The film was shot last year as Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, released the herd back into the desert as part of the programme's first phase. The much-anticipated moment of the release, said the director, Bader Ben Hirsi, was "emotional".

"It was closure of what Sheikh Mohammed's father had started all those years before," he said. In one scene, Sheikh Mohammed gently soothes an abandoned calf whose mother has fled too quickly. As the calf is calmed down, knees still wobbling, it finds the courage to follow and find its herd. The film continues in a search for the calf's mother. Although the last known wild oryx was spotted in the UAE in 1972, there are now more than 4,000 in the country, with many newborn calves among the herds.

In the 1960s, Sheikh Zayed noticed the rapidly diminishing numbers of wild oryx, many of which had been hunted for their hide, horns and meat. He arranged for those remaining to be captured and put in to a special breeding programme. In 1992, the Co-ordination Committee for the Conservation of the Arabian Oryx was formed in Abu Dhabi. It began to link the region's efforts to preserve the much cherished animal, which can be found as far afield as Jordan, the Syrian Desert, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Sheikh Zayed's capture/release programme is being managed as a joint venture between the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, Sir Bani Yas Island and Al Ain Zoo.

Hirsi said his documentary served as a vital reminder to new generations of Emiratis of an important part of their past. "This animal is as important to these people's history as the camel or the falcon," he said. "With the developments in the UAE, people are forgetting what's really happening. For the old Emiratis, their children don't know so many of these parts of their culture and it's very sad."

The film-maker, who was born in Britain and is now based in the south of France, praised the Government and the Environment Agency for their efforts to educate people on the environment and traditional Emirati culture. Arabian Oryx was shot over an intense two weeks, in the heart of Abu Dhabi's relentless desert. Some of the animals released, such as the newborns, were fitted with satellite tracking devices as they headed out into the wilderness for the first time. The desert is now believed to be a far harsher terrain than it was 100 years ago, with a growing scarcity of food pitching the oryx in competition with their rival inhabitants, the camel.

The biggest fear now for the oryx is poaching, with females considered prime prey to sell to other countries. It is an ongoing challenge the Environment Agency is determined to control by toughening up rangers in the desert, and implementing a monitoring programme, with controlled entry points, to protect the release areas. Mr Bader hoped Abu Dhabi would develop its film industry, making such subject matter more accessible to the public. "I think this film will trigger more environmental films here," he said. "This is a part of the world that people don't really know much about. People don't see programmes on the UAE, but Abu Dhabi is taking these issues very seriously."

He also hoped his film would educate people here about wildlife that their ancestors knew only too well. "It's a film that the locals will be proud of, not just the film but the release itself," he said. "It's an attachment to the past and who they are. There's a danger that they can get lost otherwise in all these magnificent buildings." [e-mail]