Beginning on May 1st, 2013 I spent one week in one of the most pristine Indonesian jungles in search of the orang pendek (in the Indonesian language: orang pendek small man, or uhang pandak in the local dialect of Kerinci). It is a unique hominid living in the pristine tropical forests of Sumatra. Moving upright, hairy all over the body but without the tail, while very reminiscent of a man, he can be the "lost" link in the theory of evolution.
Seen by a few hundred people, despite its uniqueness he has not yet been subjected to a thorough analysis. When a British researcher Debbie Martyr unveiled its footprint, he started to be hunted by many scientific circles. Among others, National Geographic and the University of Cambridge prepared their expeditions in search of this unique creation. At this time there more than 100 cameras deployed in the National Park Kerinci. Motion in the vicinity releases the shutter. Unfortunately, besides the previously known inhabitants of the forest, the pictures did not show the little man. The project failed, so it closed in 2009. The Orang pendek remained on the border between sleep and waking.
The project documents the expeditions in the misty forests, the aim of which was to examine the natural creature that does not necessarily exist. It was to be a sentimental journey, seeking sources of our species and responses to remarkable questions. Why are locals convinced of the existence of people with the ability to transition into a tiger? Who fled in a misty forest never to return? Why does the local parasitic fungus infect the brains of ants. It forces the ant’s mind to enter the top of the tree, then growing out of its body in a spectacular way the fungus kills the ant.? Why does the affected branch turn out to be an insect, and drinking the river water tiger is really a fern leaf?
After two days of hiking in addition to traces of bears, tapirs and deer there were visible traces of human-like feet, questions are proliferated.
What functions as illusions became reality ...