Ukraine

Man who cleaned the river. Environmental documentary. 

The full-scaled Russian invention of Ukraine is still happening. Ukrainians were forced to live under shelling, but they didn’t lose their desire to do amazing things for nature. The story of a single man, who cleaned part of the river Tisza in Transcarpathia is a great example. 

Background: the Tisza was one of the most polluted rivers in Europe. Waste management in Transcarpathia is in its primary stage of development. The lack of public bins, proper waste management system leads to the transformation of rivers and mountains into dumping grounds. 

Béla Francz, a man from the Transcarpathia region, has taken up the fight against the flood of plastic on rivers in upstream Yasinya, close to Carpathian Biosphere Reserve.

During the last 10 years the Hungarian organization Naturefilm.hu (Természetfilm.hu) Society has also been working for a cleaner Tisza: in the beginning from Hungary and later also in Ukraine. 

Anyway, Béla Francz had to start cleaning alone. He set up public bins, created the system of selective waste management, drove his old truck to the river, and started to pick up trash from everywhere. He had hoped to sponsor his initiative by selling sorted waste as materials: glass, plastic, and metal. Unfortunately, this plan failed and the profit hardly covered the price of fuel for the truck. He was about to give up when a ray of hope appeared. 

In the beginning of February, 2021 Béla Francz got in touch with Plastic Cup volunteers. They decided to help him and filmed a short fundraising video and published it on a Hungarian crowdsourcing platform to buy the IVECO truck. Once 1000 USD was raised, Béla bought a truck and raised his project to a completely different level. 

The next step of the Naturefilm.hu was to make a full-screen movie to promote rivers’ cleaning activity. “River Saver Truck” is an one-hour documentary featuring Béla Francz whose actions and attitude lead us back to an appreciation and respect for nature. The film is available online and is subtitled in all Tisza languages (Ukrainian, Slovakian, Romanian, Serbian, Hungarian) and English.

Check the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1kSjq4OIQ

Watch the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1kSjq4OIQ

We are admiring bravery and resilience of Béla Francz and want to encourage you to spread great ideas. A couple of years ago European Wilderness Society also implemented a clean-up project in Ukrainian Carpathian’s at Synevyr National Nature Park and recently prepared another one for Carpathian Biosphere Reserve.

One thought on “Man who cleaned the river. Environmental documentary. 

  • Wonderful, thanks for sharing the film!

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