A wildfire leaves behind emptiness, and people are left restless and confused. Forests that took hundreds of years to form can disappear in just a few hours. The first thing we notice after a fire is how everything looks different. The trees are gone — along with the animals that couldn’t escape. If the first heavy rains don’t wash away the soil — because tree roots can no longer hold it in place — life will begin to return quickly, and we may see new forests in about seventy years. But if the soil is lost, it could take more than 200 years for forests to regenerate.
A wildfire, in itself, is a form of catastrophe. When it happens in nature, its impact reflects back onto humans, resulting in social, ecological, and economic disasters.
In Montenegro, the area affected by wildfires has been increasing in recent years. Hundreds of square kilometers of forest are burned almost every year.
Just last year, around 400 km² of land burned — an area roughly the size of the municipality of Žabljak!
The damage caused by wildfires, according to some scientific estimates, amounts to around €20,000 per hectare. Yet, Montenegro lacks both the human resources and the basic equipment to prevent and suppress wildfires. The situation is further complicated by poor coordination between fire services, the Ministry of Interior, and the Forest Administration.
This film tells the story of the forest — its life, its role in sustaining and protecting humans — and how people fail to take care of it, letting it burn in flames they often started themselves.
The film also explores Montenegro’s fire response system and the urgent solutions we must implement now if we are to avoid disaster.
The film is a collaboration between the Montenegrin Ecologists Society, the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro, and DOK Production.