The Living Desert

6/7/2025

There’s a fun scene in this documentary that sees a tiny little mouse try to burrow it’s way out of the jaws of a rattlesnake only to find it’s assisted by a very unlikely ally - a tarantula! That should give you a clue as to the content of this film that very much does what it says on the can. Using some intimate (and probably patient) photographic techniques, we spend time in the arid wilderness of Death and Monument Valleys where despite the dryness a great variety of flora and fauna not only survive but thrive. It’s very much an eat or be eaten mentality for just about everything as there prove to be few safe hiding places for predators with two feet, four feet, giant leaves, prickles or great big wings but there’s a sense of equilibrium here as everything seems to be in proportion. It