00:02Let's go!
00:30Let's go!
01:00On the road that, coming from Tananarive, crosses the Tropic of Capricorn
01:02and that the sacred mountain of the Barra tribes stands on the horizon.
01:07We are going even further south.
01:10Cross the mountain, where the forest begins, full of mysteries and thorns.
01:18The only possible vehicle was the Filanzane until the beginning of this century.
01:23Now there are leads, but it was Filanzane that Queen Ranavalona used.
01:28and Generals Gallieni and Liottel when they pacified the country.
01:32A sprawling forest with horns topped with pom-poms, unique in the world.
01:36The Fanchilouches forest, diabolical.
01:56With these small leaves inserted close to the trunks between powerful thorns.
02:06Dangerous even in its juices, a blow of the axe into a form
02:10and the poison gushes forth in the form of this white latex.
02:16If a single drop reaches the eyes, the man becomes blind.
02:47And yet, at the crossroads of the centers,
02:49This wooden cross is neither a tomb nor a Calvary, but a sign of wealth.
02:53That of the sisal tree, whose ampullae release precious seeds in the wind.
03:01Every four years, they come to harvest with swords
03:05the adult leaves are heavy, hard, and pointed.
03:15Thanks to them, the unsophisticated people here are working towards a genuine industry.
03:21mechanized, on the edge of the plantation reclaimed from the forest.
03:27The leaves are shredded, the fibers dried, then dusted off.
03:32before going into the machines that will twist them into ropes or strings.
03:52The village is there, next to the factory, and although there is no shortage of space,
03:55The huts are tiny.
03:58There, they lived crouching, huddled together,
04:01like pigeons in their cage.
04:02Next to them, the planter's house cuts a large figure.
04:05And his master likes to amaze visitors
04:07by showing them his most precious treasure,
04:09in this case, an epiornis egg.
04:12Can you tell me about epiornis?
04:15and its extraordinary egg?
04:20Epiornis, madam, probably existed.
04:24in the Manescar cipher,
04:26a date that has never been determined,
04:27having read all about the ostrich,
04:29with a necessarily much taller stature.
04:33The eggs that are currently being discovered
04:36were, for the most part, extracted from the marshes
04:39from the Apamilour region.
04:41So far, we've found about, as far as I know,
04:44a maximum of about forty.
04:45What is the capacity of the egg?
04:47According to some, it would be 72 to 75 chicken eggs.
04:51And what are these black marks that you showed me?
04:56The marks you see on the egg
04:58come from the sacrifice
04:59that the natives do at the time of the discovery of the egg.
05:04Epiornis has been extinct for 600 or 700 years.
05:07judged by its size based on its skeleton
05:09compared to that of an ostrich or a chicken.
05:12Here, yet another mystery.
05:13Epiornis legs, like those of chickens,
05:14have only three fingers.
05:15Ostrich feet, two.
05:17For what ?
05:19On stage, an aïe-aïe, another Malagasy specialty.
05:22A nocturnal lemur that feeds on the eggs it finds in the forest
05:25and that he swallows after piercing them with his third finger in the shape of a hook.
05:34Lemurs still haunt the rainforest.
05:37Primates, such as monkeys and humans,
05:39They are different from monkeys, however, because of their pointed snouts.
05:43Black spots and long white tails characterize the chiffacs.
06:15THE
06:23The graceful ringed tails are a characteristic of maques.
06:30They were difficult to find.
06:33Look at them closely, because you will only see them here, happy and free.
07:26Note that the Mac mother carries her baby on her back, as does the Malagasy mother.
07:34Rustic art bears witness to this.
07:39Statuette belonging to an enthusiast of the marvelous butterflies of Madagascar.
07:47Unique butterflies.
07:51The world's largest comet is Malagasy, did you know that?
08:00And indeed, two small comets are about to emerge from their cocoons here.
08:05They are only born at night and we don't have time to wait.
08:09Because the forest continues.
08:13A new surprise: the blossoming Ravenel succeeds the thorns and poisons.
08:18At the stroke of the axe, this fan of leaves, says the traveler's tree, transforms into a source of fresh water.
08:32Death, however, is present.
08:39Here are the nepenthes waiting for their prey.
08:50With their leaves raised, these carnivorous flowers offer their tempting sugar to flies and gnats.
08:55who will draw from the final oblivion.
09:05Scientists are currently studying these fly-shells.
09:08They discovered that some mosquitoes were resistant to the deadly secretions of the nepenthes.
09:12Perhaps there is something new to be found here regarding human gastric functions.
09:21This time, the forest is beyond our grasp.
09:22To the south, there is nothing but the sea.
09:24The sea is deserted all the way to the South Pole.
09:26The paths sparkle
09:31mica from the nearby mine.
09:45And the engineer explains.
09:48The crystallization of mica is governed by exact scientific laws.
09:53These are prisms, generally six-sided, slightly pyramidal.
09:59Each of the angles of this prism is approximately 120 degrees.
10:07The rest is simply a matter of stroking, becoming increasingly refined thanks to the skill of the feet and hands.
10:13until perfect transparency.
10:36Miracle of the stones.
10:46Ah, the beautiful crystals of Madagascar.
10:48They come in all sorts of forms.
10:49White, frosted, smoky.
10:51There are even some that are perfectly transparent, such as the piezo used in electronics.
11:02Opal, tourmaline, amethyst, garnet, agate, beryl, raw or cut.
11:31Jewels from this dealer's collection, encased in this rock crystal,
11:35a simple drop of water rolling like this in its clear prison for perhaps 500 million years.
11:40Since the crystal was formed, and which is therefore even older than it.
11:44So Madagascar was probably not yet the large island.
11:47It belonged to a lost continent.
11:48But which one?
11:50Subtitling by Radio-Canada
12:01Subtitling by Radio-Canada
