The two episodes of THE SAHARAN SERIES filmed in Libya and entitled Waters Under the Earth and A Forgotten Civilisation are now complete and have been exhibited at two major TV Documentary Fairs - MIP-TV in Cannes, France and Hot Docs in Toronto, Canada where they aroused a great deal of interest from worldwide broadcasters.

The films produced by A&AB; Productions (crew pictured) tell two separate stories about Libya’s historytell two separate stories about Libya’s history.

In Waters Under the Earth , the film moves quickly from the ancient Paleolithic to the hunter-gatherers and early Neolithic pastoralists of the Holocene period (the last 12,000 years).

The narrative theme of the film, which links these prehistoric peoples to modern-day Libya, is Water. The film shows how the early rivers and lakes influenced the settlement and movement of our stone-age ancestors in the desert.

But these rivers and lakes were to dry up. With the increasing desiccation of the Sahara after about 5,000 BP (before present), man, at least in the Libyan Desert, was able to adapt to this climatic change by tapping the waters that are now only found beneath the earth.

The film highlights this extraordinary transition in desert civilisation in the emergence, almost three thousand years ago, of the Garamantian civilisation. In so doing, it stresses the critically important link between conservation and sustainable development.

The Sahara is by far the world’s largest desert – bigger even than the USA. Not surprisingly, it has always been the subject of lost worlds and civilizations. While most of these belong to the world of myth, there is one, the ancient Libyan civilisation of the Garamantes, which is rooted in reality.

The Forgotten Civilisation of the Garamantians flourished for some 1,500 years, from around 900 BC. From their capital of Germa, the Garamantian influence extended over an area the size of Europe. This civilisation was effectively forgotten and lost until its rediscovery in the latter part of the 20th century.

It is the story of how and why a great, agriculturally-based city state emerged in the Fezzan; The film reveals what we now know of this remarkable people: their origins and ethnicity, their religious beliefs and social structures, their political organisation, their relations with the Roman Empire to their north and the African (‘Ethiopian’) peoples to their south and, above all, how they harnessed the underground waters of the desert.

Both films offer breathtaking photography, and Libya’s natural beauty will be seen as it has never been seen before thanks to the use of the latest high definition equipment.

The films were produced by A&AB; Productions, directed by Michael Bonello, written and presented by Jeremy Keenan and edited by Adam Bonello who also wrote the haunting music sondtrack.

At a recent very cordial meeting in Paris Michael & Adam Bonello presented a DVD copy of the films to M. Jean Privey, president (Africa) of TOTAL one of the film’s sponsors. The films’ other sponsors were Shell, Petrocanada and Corinthia Hotels International.

Michael Bonello told The Tripoli Post: “We are exceedingly grateful to our sponsors. Without their aid the films would never have been made. However the films are visually big and have global TV distribution, meaning that the sponsors will immediately be associated with environmental/cultural conservation, good social investment and sound sustainable development.”

He went on to say that such film sponsorship opens a highly visible window on one of the ways in which oil companies can be seen to be ‘giving back” something to the countries in which they operate.

He concluded: “The oil companies’ sponsorship will also help to promote Libya’s developing tourist industry worldwide”

JOSEPH CUTAJAR