AN ARCTIC and Amazon explorer and former Royal Marine is to touch down at Keswick Film Festival this Saturday (February 24).

Bruce Parry will be arriving at the Theatre by the Lake to introduce his film Tawai – A Voice from the Forest and to host a Q&A session after the screening.

Bruce made his name with award-winning children’s programmes such as the Serious Desert and Serious Jungle, plus three series of Tribe, where he spent time living with indigenous peoples in locations such as Gabon, India, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Mongolia and Venezuela.

Further adventures followed as Bruce travelled through the Amazon and into the Arctic and he now champions the rights of indigenous peoples across the globe.

His first feature film draws on his experiences from those earlier expeditions. The title, Tawai, is the word the nomadic hunter-gatherers of Borneo use to describe their inner feeling of connection to nature.

The Guardian described the film as "an empathetic, sumptuously filmed homage to indigenous groups, particularly the Penan, a Bornean community that is held up by anthropologists as a model of a peaceful and egalitarian society".

Keswick Film Festival director Ian Payne said: "We had included Tawai in our programme as it is an ideal fit with the Keswick festival. To hear that Bruce is now able to come and host a Q&A session and share his thoughts and experiences is a real thrill."

The invitation to Bruce was sent via Keswick Film Club members Sally and Michael Bohling, of Mungrisdale, whose son, Adam, is a long-time friend of Bruce as well as one of the one of the producers of Tawai.

"It was touch-and-go for a while," added Ian, "as we had heard Bruce was in Borneo and out of contact but in true style he got a message back to us that he was on his way!"

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