Dust

Nature & Wildlife 52' 2025 4K

In a remote corner of Botswana, where the Okavango Delta dissolves into the baking sands of the Kalahari, water and desert are locked in a perpetual struggle. Dust follows that battle over the course of a year through flood and dust, abundance and starvation anchored by the longest terrestrial zebra migration in Africa and the animals whose lives hinge on the arrival of rain.

At the heart of the story is the Boteti River and the vast Makgadikgadi salt pans, where water rarely lingers but life still insists on trying. As floodwaters from Angola pulse south, the Boteti swells into a narrow lifeline. Elephants, hippos, zebra, and wildebeest crowd its banks, while lions, cheetahs, jackals, and elusive brown hyenas track their every move. As the heat intensifies, the river shrinks, grass turns to dust, and desperate animals are forced into increasingly dangerous encounters at muddy wallows, shrinking pools, and along treacherous riverbanks where one misstep can be fatal.

When the desert finally wins and the water retreats into the sand, thousands of zebra face a brutal choice: stay and starve, or chase distant storm clouds into the Makgadikgadi. Their journey carries us into the intimate lives of the desert’s permanent-resident meerkats standing sentry at dawn, brown hyenas surviving on scraps, and flamingos arriving by the tens of thousands when shallow pans briefly brim with water and life. For a brief window, the desert transforms into a shimmering inland sea of green grass and pink wings… before the heat returns, the water vanishes, and the herds are forced to move on once more.

Shot by an award-winning cinematographer and recipient of multiple cinematography honors, Dust blends big-screen spectacle with emotional, character-driven storytelling. It’s a blue-chip, visually arresting natural history film with powerful, timely themes: climate, water, resilience, and the cost of survival in a rapidly changing world. For platforms and broadcasters, this is a premium, evergreen title built to attract audiences who crave immersive, high-end wildlife storytelling and to keep them watching.