MATTIAS KLUM

THE TESTAMENT OF TEBARAN (2011)

In this revealing and powerful testimony, the last man of a dying Bornean tribe tells his story while unassuming consumers shop for the products that cause his extinction. It is western demand for tropical timber and palm oil that is threatening Tebaran, the headman of one of the world’s most remote and mysterious tribes – the Penan of Borneo. In his lifetime he has seen his people and their nomadic hunter-gatherer way of life pushed to the edge of extinction. Palm oil, which is used for biodiesel, is marketed in the west as a green alternative to fuel. But in fact, as the fi lm reveals, it is causing the destruction of Borneo’s rain forests and imperils one of the world’s last peoples remaining true to the oldest of human lifestyles. There are only a few hundred of them left. Tebaran has seen his people forced onto government settlements. But Tebaran stubbornly refuses to leave his rainforest – even as tropical timber companies and oil palm plantations are clearing it all out. For Tebaran, it is almost over. He has fought a losing battle and is now a wanted man. But before he and his people vanish for good Tebaran will – for the first time – speak his mind.

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