Virus Empire

The first COMPREHENSIVE documentary on the virus issue by the makers of "Beautiful Minds - A Voyage into the Brain".

During the 20th century more people were killed by viruses than by all warfare worldwide. Yet epidemiologists suspect the real invasion is yet to come. Hundreds and thousands of unknown types of viruses may surface from beneath the canopies of unexplored rainforests.

THE VIRUS EMPIRE is a two-part documentary shot on location around the world with re-enactments of some amazing anti-virus operations.

"Why are we still here?" asks virus guru Joshua Lederberg. "Only because our microbial adversaries have a shared interest in our survival". But we cannot rely on this pact any longer. The top killers, malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, kill 700 people every hour.

The protagonists of the series are anti-virus squads. THE VIRUS EMPIRE accompanies these agents of human intelligence services fighting back. But they are not always lucky: a fifth of all victims of SARS were health workers.Discover what keeps them going.

Microbiological computer animation of modern plagues underline the viewers' feeling that science fiction is becoming fact and that human civilization has been invaded by the forces of THE VIRUS EMPIRE. The entire series is shot in high definition, as is the tradition in the case of documentaries produced by ColourFIELD.