Radio Times: Review by:; Emma Perry

Phil Agland is an old-school British documentary-maker who has brought us intimate and riveting tales of other cultures for decades. Here, he revisits the Baka of Cameroon, a rainforest-dwelling pygmy tribe he first studied 25 years ago.

The Baka children Agland filmed last time are now parents themselves, but in one generation, the tribe’s lives have changed hugely as logging companies and mineral speculators, conservationists, Bantu farmers and alcohol have pushed their way into the forest. As the next generation contemplates formal schooling, Agland asks if education might be their last hope.

About this programme

Phil Agland revisits the Baka people he filmed 25 years previously in Cameroon, west Africa, to explore how life has changed for the new generation. The families are shown the original documentary for the first time, which prompts them to undertake a journey deep into the forest to rediscover how their forebears lived. The programme reveals how the communities are caught between their traditional existences and an outside world that shuns them. Phil is also reunited with Camera, who was born during the making of the first film, and her brother Ali, both of whom now have children themselves. The original documentary can be seen at 12.05am.