A dramatic sunset over a marshland, where patches of tall green grass and dark water reflect the cloudy sky and orange glow of the sun, hinting at the hidden life beneath the tranquil surface.
A brown frog and a blue frog are closely positioned on a natural, earthy surface, the blue one appearing to embrace the other. Their textured skin and prominent eyes hint at the hidden life of these amphibians near dark water.
Close-up of round, green and red carnivorous sundew plants with sticky, hair-like glands reveals the hidden life at the edge of dark water, surrounded by vibrant green and reddish moss.

Dark Water – Hidden Life

Conservation·1 x 50 min·In Development

Beneath the stillness of the bog lies a world in motion – strange, beautiful and vital to the future of our planet.

Factsheet
Genre
Conservation
Nature & Wildlife
Duration
1 × 50 min
Definition
4K
Audio
5.1
Status
In Development
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Synopsis

In a world of rushing rivers and towering forests, there’s one habitat that thrives on stillness – the peat bog. Shrouded in mist, dark and enigmatic, it’s one of the planet’s most overlooked ecosystems. But just beneath the surface, a hidden drama unfolds – full of survival, transformation and astonishing resilience.

DARK WATER – HIDDEN LIFE is a cinematic blue-chip wildlife documentary that takes viewers deep into the boglands of Europe – into a world rarely seen but impossible to forget. This is not a story of the familiar. It’s an exploration of the unknown. A revelation.

Across a full year, the camera follows the rhythms of the moor – from the frozen silence of winter to the explosive energy of spring. Azure damselflies shimmer over open water. The short-eared owl glides silently across the reeds. The elusive European otter slips beneath the surface. And in the distance, a red deer stag bellows into the morning mist.

Here, bog fritillaries, striking butterflies, teeter on the edge of extinction, the common lizard basks on mossy ground, and each spring, male moor frogs turn brilliant blue – for just a few short hours. Black grouse perform their ancient courtship dances at dawn, and beneath it all, sphagnum moss slowly builds floating islands – millimetre by millimetre, year by year.

But peatlands are more than wildlife sanctuaries. They’re among the planet’s most powerful allies in the fight against climate change – storing twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests combined. They purify water, buffer floods, and help stabilize local climates. And yet, they’re disappearing fast – drained, degraded, neglected.

With cutting-edge macro photography, ultra-slow motion and sweeping aerial shots, DARK WATER – HIDDEN LIFE reveals the extraordinary biodiversity and climate relevance of this ecosystem in stunning detail and powerful visuals.

This film uncovers a world long hidden in plain sight – and shows why its future may be inseparable from our own.

Team

Written and directed by Birgit Peters
Executive producer Sabine Holzer
Production companies A Terra Mater Studios production
Footage rights

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