Life on the Mother River

Vello moved to a secluded swamp island 30 years ago. He left his career and city life to live in harmony with mother nature. Vello makes a living from beekeeping and hunting, his life flows in the same rhythm as the nature around him.

The nature documentary filmmakers move through all four seasons and four basic landscape types in Estonia: the swamp, the forest, the coast and the wooded meadow. Everything that appears in front of the camera lens, including people, will become a part of the landscape pattern. People have habitated Estonian territory for more than 10 thousand years. Withdrawal of the ice cap created a habitat that has been adjusted to human needs during thousands of years. Lots of fields, pasture lands and hayfields have been created; the forests have been cut and planted. Unnecessary profit making has been avoided. The variety of Estonian landscapes combines wilderness, semi-natural communities and cultivated land.