Hot Roads - The World's Most Dangerous Roads

They run through deserts, ice and snow, deep in the jungle, along water and over mountains: the world’s most dangerous roads. Many risk their lives along these roads. Yet for lack of alternative routes, locals continue to use them for transportation. This series tells stories that take place along the routes, of the people who live along them and for whom these are part and parcel of their personal destiny. The filmmakers tag along in the driver’s seat of trucks, on the rear benches of busses and in the passenger seat of regular cars to experience the danger and beauty these roads offer from different perspectives – through the windshield and in the rear-view mirror simultaneously.

These are some of the world's most dangerous roads. Whether legally or illegally, people, animals and goods are transported on them. They are tracks, paths and passes. However, there is no information about what the routes actually look like, the precipices they can lead to, or the number of curves and obstacles that must be overcome. The roads can change from day to day and even from hour to hour. Rain, mud, snow, sandstorms, rockfalls and hurricanes can turn a predictable risk into an unknown quantity. Everyone who embarks on this dangerous journey hopes to arrive safely.

People, animals and goods are transported on desert tracks, narrow mountain roads or roads made of ice, because for many these "Hot Roads" are the only way to get to their families or to transport urgently needed goods. Road conditions can change from day to day, from hour to hour. Encounters with wild animals on and off the trail do the rest, making the trip a real ride into risk for everyone. But where there is danger, there is also beauty. Whether it is coastal rainforest on the Pacific coast in British Columbia, shifting sand dunes in the Thar Desert, or thousands of wildebeest among the acacias of the Serengeti, our routes are characterized by a diversity and uniqueness that is second to none.

They lead over steep mountain passes, into deep gorges or through absolute solitude. Anyone traveling on the most dangerous roads in the world is taking a risk, however beautiful the view may be. No map shows the obstacles and what the routes actually look like. Road conditions can change from day to day, from hour to hour. In rain, mud, sandstorms, falling rocks, or hurricanes, it is a tour into the unknown. Often these roads are not passable all year round, the danger is too great in winter or during the rainy season. Climate change and the growing number of extreme weather events make traveling on these routes more difficult. But where danger lurks, beauty is not far away. Whether glacier fjords in Chile's far south or treacherous sandbanks on Colombia's La Guaijira peninsula, these wild roads lead to some of the most beautiful regions in the world.