Home >

Factual >

Documentary Special >

Blood of the Rose, The

image

A film about the life and death of Joan Root, and of her campaign to save the lake she loved.

** WINNER OF THE 2009 SHEFFIELD GREEN AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY ADDRESSING ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES** Joan Root, with her husband Alan, produced some of the most beautiful and famous natural history films, born of her deep love of Africa and its flora and fauna. This delicate but fiercely determined member of Kenya’s Happy Valley was gunned down in January 2006 by intruders bearing AK-47s. Four men were charged with her murder, including David Chege, the leader of a private vigilante group whom Root herself had financed to stop the illegal fishing that was killing Lake Naivasha, the beautiful lake beside which she lived. Who killed Joan Root? Was it the fish poachers, whom Root stopped from plying their illegal trade in a bid to save her beloved Lake Naivasha? Was it her once-loyal lieutenant Chege, whom Root ultimately cut off from her payroll? Or was it one of her colonial neighbours, with whom Root had feuded for years? Through the telling of her story, the film opens a window into contemporary Africa and the developed world’s relationship with it. For it is the Kenyan rose, which is exported by the millions on a daily basis from Naivasha, that has created - not just jobs and foreign exchange earnings - but a population explosion whose effect on the environment Root worked so hard to stop. Her campaign may have ultimately cost her her life. The film is made by the award-winning filmmaker Henry Singer, the director behind the iconic 9/11 film, The Falling Man. 'This beautifully shot film contained anything you could want from a narrative in fact or fictionThe film...including the time to tell its story. Its producer-director, Henry Singer, deserves a prize, a speedy showing on BBC Two and his film on general release.' Times 'It's the kind of story documentarians must live for.... Well, that's only part of Henry Singer's extraordinary film which, like his 2006 film 'The Falling Man', takes an apparently isolated incident and works backwards to embrace wider and equally troubling questions. When does poaching for profit become fishing to survive? How far can conservation from a position of privilege impinge on a local economy before it resembles a form of post-colonial suppression? And what drove this lonely woman to such lengths to protect her environment? It's a tangled web of good intentions, conflicted motives and bad business, unravelled with tenacity and empathy. Part whodunit, part character study, and part environmental tract, it's whole is utterly gripping.' Time Out - Pick of the Week - Five Stars 'This impressive account of the life and death of filmmaker turned conservationist Joan Root is by turns a heartfelt love story, a history of the wildlife of Kenya and an exploration of colonialism. But it's also a classic whodunit.... The resulting investigation grips while also raising interesting questions about the cost of industrialization in the developing world'. Radio Times - Today's Choice ‘A haunting film about so many timely issues…. It resonates so deeply.’ Cynthia Kane, Independent Television Service 'Stunning Kenyan vistas, plus amazing archive of Joan’s film days, provided a rich backdrop. Thank goodness Singer got to this story before the long-mooted Julia Roberts-starring biopic.' Broadcast Magazine ‘Murder on the Lake’ was a gruesomely gripping mystery about the untimely death of the nature- film documentary-maker Joan Root, who was killed in the night.... This was one time when reality lived up to fiction. There were layers and layers of motives and opportunities and a death that was chillingly dark, all played out against the landscape of growing cut flowers for European supermarkets. It was a terrific story that fitted all the strict rules of a classic white African tragedy: good intentions turned to dust and blood. It was directed by Henry Singer, who made the contentiously manipulative documentary The Falling Man, about 9/11, that I took agin. Well, Murder on the Lake certainly made up for it.' Sunday Times 'Henry Singer is the acclaimed filmmaker of ‘The Falling Man’, which explored the mystery of a single death in the 9/11 attacks. His latest film also uses an individual case to stand for wider issues.... The brilliance of this sensationally good documentary is how viewers are treated with the intelligence to be be presented with different versions and left to decide for themselves.' Mail On Sunday -Five Stars 'Nothing is as it seems in this brilliant film, from the maker of ‘The Falling Man’, which tells how eco activist Joan Root was murdered in her lakeside home in Kenya. It’s a gripping and unforgettable watch that matches any fictional thriller.' Daily Mail 'A whodunnit with disturbing political implications....' Financial Times 'In laying out the context of the crime and trying to solve it, the film works as a portrait of Root, an involving mystery and a picture of Kenyan society in which the long shadow of colonialism still hangs heavy...' Sunday Herald 'In laying out the context of the crime and trying to solve it, the film works as a portrait of Root, an involving mystery and a picture of Kenyan society in which the long shadow of colonialism still hangs heavy...' Times Playlist

Programme Information

  • Genre: Factual

  • Subgenre: Documentary Special

  • Producers: Dragonfly Film and Television Productions, formerly Firefly Productions

  • Broadcaster: BBC

  • Duration: 1 x 100'

  • Tags: Environment Love Africa Crime Henry Singer

More Like This