Series Disappearing World Series
Director Leslie Woodhead, David Turton
Country/Production UK
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Ethiopia / Africa
Ethnic Group Kwegu, Mursi
Order No RAI-200.292
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What made this trilogy special was that, unlike most television reportage, it had a temporal dimension. That is to say, it offered not a brutal, intrusive and uncomprehending snapshot, but a sympathetic, well-informed and thoughtful history of ten difficult years in the life of a tribe. Its insight derived from an anthropologist, David Turton, who has been studying the Mursi for years and who was able to provide the absolutely essential explanations of the mysterious events filmed by the Granada crew. This is the kind of illumination which is often provided by books or by personal experience, but almost never by television. John Naughton This is a trilogy about aspects of the culture of two groups of people, the Kwegu and the Mursi, in Ethiopia. The titles are: THE MURSI , THE KWEGU, THE MIGRANTS J. Naughton, 1985. Review of the trilogy. The Listener (London), 24 October.W. Shack, 1987. Review of the trilogy. American Anthropologist, Vol. 89, pp. 780–81.
