site.btaFilm About Tarpans Wins Best Short Documentary Award at Equus Film Festival in New York

Film About Tarpans Wins
Best Short Documentary Award
at Equus Film Festival in New York


Sofia, November 25 (BTA) - The film "TARPAN: Repainting An
Ancient Picture" Monday won the Best Short Documentary award at
the Equus Film Festival in New York, said the New Thracian Gold
nongovernmental organization, which in the last several years
has been working for the return of the Tarpans in Bulgaria's
Eastern Rhodope Mountains. The half-hour documentary was shot in
Bulgaria and Poland by American filmmakers Jen Miller and
Sophie Dia Pegrum from Horsefly Films.

The Tarpan (Equus ferus ferus) was a prehistoric wild horse type
that ranged from Southern France and Northern Spain east to
Central Russia. Tarpans went extinct in wild nature between 1875
and 1890, and the last known wild mare was accidentally killed
in Russia during an attempt to capture it. The last captive
Tarpan died in 1909 in a Ukrainian zoo. Beginning in the 1930s,
several attempts have since been initiated to re-create or bring
back a look-a-like Tarpan through selective breeding with
domestic races which allegedly retained much Tarpan DNA in their
genome. This look-a-like Tarpan is also known as the Konik
Polski. This breed has originated from Polish Tarpan re-creation
projects and is one of the horse types which are most suitable
for rewilding. In some countries - like the Netherlands - this
Polish Konik has been released to nature
reserves very successfully, with the beginning some thirty years
ago. From there these horses have then been brought to Latvia,
Bulgaria and other European countries.

In September 2011, the first twelve Tarpans were brought from
the Netherlands to Bulgaria by the ARK Foundation and these
settled successfully in the Rhodope Mountains. Three years
later, a second herd of 35 Tarpans was released in the same
area, which on November 13 were announced as a new rewilding
area in the Rewilding Europe initiative. This release into the
wild is now followed by the release of the movie about the
Tarpans.

Directors Miller and Pegrum explain that through their work
filming horses, they have learned that there are over 600 breeds
of horses around the world that are endangered and in danger of
going extinct. "Most people have never heard of any of them and
our vision is to create a cinematic library to educate the
public and shine a light on these breeds and vanishing horse
cultures in an effort to conserve and preserve them for future
generations," the two filmmakers say.

They plan to organize a premiere screening event of "TARPAN:
Repainting An Ancient Picture" in New York and Chicago for the
Bulgarian consulates, and a Bulgarian premiere in Sofia and
local screenings throughout the Rhodope region.

PK/DS