East and West - where does the power lie? Where does the future
lie? How does China fit into the world? These were the questions
that a young merchant from Venice was asking when he set out to
discover the unknown East. His story, related in ‘The Travels of
Marco Polo’, has shaped how the West has viewed the East ever
since.
Marco Polo’s journey from Venice to the far reaches of the
Mongol Empire started in 1271 and became a 20 year exploration of
the great, conquered lands of the East. In this three part series
we retrace that physical journey today, looking at the people and
places he visited some 700 years ago
The journey starts from Venice and continues through the Middle
East, stopping at Acre and Jerusalem, passing through war-ravaged
Baghdad and along the Silk Road. It travels into the vast deserts
of present day Iran before entering China and the great Mongol
Empire.
Episode 1 – Another World ‘Another World’ travels from Venice to
the Holy Land, then north east through present day Iraq and through
southern Iran to the home of the assassins of Alamut. A Chinese
professor travels west to Venice in search of the ‘shadow’ of Marco
Polo, posing philosophical questions about East and West, and
exploring the implications of the Marco Polo story. And a young man
from Venice travels the physical journey east, providing a visual
motif of the famous journey.
Episode 2 – Lost Worlds‘Lost Worlds’ picks up the journey at the
Pamir Mountains on the edge of China, from where Marco Polo
followed the Silk Road, down to the forbidden Taklamakan Desert and
onto the vast expanses of the Mongolian steppe. He makes his way to
Xanadu, the heart of Kublai Khan’s power base. Along the way we
meet the modern guides on the ancient horse-drawn postal routes and
discover the City of Women in modern day Tibet.
Episode 3 – The New WorldThe final film travels through China.
From Kublai Khan’s Beijing in the 1270s to the rapid development of
the city in the 1990s, Beijing represents the power and economic
might of the country. We meet a group of millionaires from internet
trader Alibaba who appear to have the same entrepreneurial spirit
as the ancient merchants encountered by Marco Polo.
© EOS Films
3x50’Distributed by Earth Touch
Chris [email protected]
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