The Virus Empire
(2) The Invisible Enemy - Docu-Drama
Viruses are one of the biggest killers in the world. In the 20th Century more people died from viral infections than from all the wars around the globe. With reconstructions, The Virus Empire uncovers how these invisible enemies are spread and the science behind them.
Smallpox is the only virus that is officially eradicated. That is why only elderly age groups are vaccinated against it. But stocks of the virus are still held by certain governments and this episode goes onto show what might happen if those sources were used as a weapon of mass destruction.
Terrorists manage to infect the napkins used at the closing reception of an international congress in Berlin with smallpox viruses. The New Yorker virologist James Baldrin and the medicine student from Dortmund Sammie Mahale are among the victims. A few days after the attack the whole world is panicking with 37 countries recording a smallpox outbreak.
The second episode The Invisible Enemy features the work of researchers like Brazilian Luiz Pereira, American Nathan Wolfe or French Xavier Pourrut in the tropical forests in South America, Asia and Africa and their hunt for the coming killers. These are the still unknown viruses that could very soon jump from animals to humans. Experts fear that during outbreaks of killer viruses like ebola or the Marburg virus, terrorists could get the germs from the infected persons and then synthetically multiply them – as it was done in Soviet laboratories twenty years ago.
Smallpox is the only virus that is officially eradicated. That is why only elderly age groups are vaccinated against it. But stocks of the virus are still held by certain governments and this episode goes onto show what might happen if those sources were used as a weapon of mass destruction.
Terrorists manage to infect the napkins used at the closing reception of an international congress in Berlin with smallpox viruses. The New Yorker virologist James Baldrin and the medicine student from Dortmund Sammie Mahale are among the victims. A few days after the attack the whole world is panicking with 37 countries recording a smallpox outbreak.
The second episode The Invisible Enemy features the work of researchers like Brazilian Luiz Pereira, American Nathan Wolfe or French Xavier Pourrut in the tropical forests in South America, Asia and Africa and their hunt for the coming killers. These are the still unknown viruses that could very soon jump from animals to humans. Experts fear that during outbreaks of killer viruses like ebola or the Marburg virus, terrorists could get the germs from the infected persons and then synthetically multiply them – as it was done in Soviet laboratories twenty years ago.
Facts
Shot in original locations in Germany, Switzerland, France, Danmark, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Ukraine, the USA, Brazil, Gabon, Kongo, Hongkong and Indonesia.
First aired 14th November 2008, 20.15 pm, ARTE / 6th May 2009, 23.30 pm
Credits
Written, directed and produced by: Petra Höfer, Freddie Röckenhaus and Francesca D’Amicis
Cast: Bernhard Bauer (Carlo Urbani), Ilaria Restifo (Giuliana Urbani), Hiromi Tojo (Prof. Liu), Sheng Yang (Johnny Chen), Ya Li Abbrederis (Frau Kwan)
Director of Photography: Johannes Imdahl, Samir Saad, Thomas Schäfer, Marcus von Kleist, Sean Healey, Axel Petrovan
Video Editor: Jörg Wegner
Line Producer: Svenja Mandel
Narration: Benjamin Völz
Commissioning Editors: Britta Susann Lübke (Radio Bremen), Gabriele Conze (WDR Cologne)
A colourFIELD production commissioned by Radio Bremen, ARTE, WDR Cologne
