Original subtitles

The bite of this snake can be deadly.

The cobra is one of the most dangerous poisonous snakes

in the world.

Over 100,000 people die every year from snake bites.

Having an antidote serum can be the difference

between life and death.

Experienced snake catchers like Gholam Reza Arjanaki

from Iran are the key to making these serums.

Gholam and his sons capture poisonous snakes

with their bare hands.

He teaches his children that a snake catcher has

to learn to overcome his fears as young as possible.

He will get into an aquarium

with 30 snakes, which is not much bigger than he is.

The children must learn everything

about a snake's behavior so they can hunt it

just like their father.

But snakes are always unpredictable

and even for the snake charmer, their bite is dangerous.

The snake catcher gets a job, a snake has been seen

in a residential house early in the morning.

Gholam Reza Arjanaki has to capture the snake.

[Female Translator] I couldn't sleep all night long.

I was so afraid ever since this morning,

we wouldn't dare leave the house.

People are deeply afraid of snakes.

No one here will attempt to capture it.

Everyone here knows if you capture a snake,

it will defend itself by biting you.

[Female Translator] There it is, in the middle

of the two wooden bars.

We asked everyone for help, but no one can help us.

They all shepherd from fear, it's a very big one.

People often use household remedies

to get rid of snakes but this can irritate them even more.

[Female Translator] They told me to make some fire.

You should make fire so that the snake

goes away, what nonsense.

The snake may fear the smoke,

but you can't get rid of it like this.

I'm gonna climb up there to look for it.

No one can describe the type of snake

that's hidden here.

Gholam Reza Arjanaki doesn't know whether

the snake hiding in the rafters is poisonous or harmless.

The snake remains elusive.

But the landlady is convinced calling the snake catcher

was the right thing to do.

[Female Translator] They came to catch the snake.

They will kill it then.

They're snake catchers from the town.

[Female Translator] It's hiding in the hay,

or in the store room, or up there.

[Female Translator] You're probably too blind to see it.

These people have seen the snake, I've shown it to them.

We're scared of snakes in this household.

The doors are open 24 hours and he's afraid too.

I told him that there was a snaked and then in a flash,

he's hidden himself in the last corner.

[Female Translator] Yeah we also killed it back then.

Finally the snake catcher is successful.

Something moves under the roof beam.

Gholam quickly grasps the snake with his experienced hand.

The snake catcher grips the snake's tail

and shakes it to make sure its head stays upside down.

This is the only way to prevent a bite.

Gholam Reza Arjanaki wants to catch the snake alive

so that he can get its poison

and send it to the snake institute.

This is where a new antidote serum can be developed

against poisonous bites.

The snake charmer doesn't charge a fee

for catching snakes, his payment is the snake itself.

Gholam Reza Arjanaki is constantly exploring

all types of snakes.

He drives with his sons into the desert to hunt them.

If the types of wild snakes change in nature,

their poison will also change.

The old serums will no longer help.

My name is Gholam Reza Arjanaki

and I am known in Iran as the snake charmer.

Whoever you ask in Iran looking for the snake charmer,

he will tell you that this is Gholam Arjanaki

from Desharma Hal.

It's 10 AM and the heat is already unbearable.

The high temperatures make snakes aggressive

so it's a dangerous time to go hunting.

His kids get a snack before setting off

on the snake hunt.

Gholam Reza Arjanaki is a desert expert.

A picnic in the middle of snake territory.

This is also part of his children's training.

They need to learn to always be attentive

and to not fear the snakes.

(dramatic music)

His sons Hassan and Ali look for poisonous snakes

only using short canes.

[Young Translator] Snakes are always hide

in the shadow of the bushes.

Snakes are generally shy and remain hidden

but if they are disturbed they will get aggressive.

Especially in the midday heat.

Gholam has found a horned viper.

Poisonous snakes look like this.

They have an opulent physique,

the end of their tail is filoform.

Their head has the shape of a triangle.

Most of them move edgewise,

that's the way to recognize them.

This one is a horned viper.

This snake's poison will damage muscles,

blood, and blood vessels.

The snake over here has the

characteristics of a poisonous snake.

This is a horned viper.

These are the most poisonous snakes in Iran.

I can also show you its teeth.

I can recognize them through these two poisonous teeth.

If you get bit from such a snake,

you will quite probably get paralyzed.

There are no chances of healing,

the poison is just too strong.

Hassan and Ali know

all the usual snake hiding spots.

They mostly lie under bushes and shrubs.

[Young Translator] I caught a snake, I captured a snake.

Gholam, look I captured a snake.

(speaking in foreign language)

This is an elapid.

These are harmless snakes, their teeth are along

the back of their throat.

They have to bite their victim firmly in order

to put the poison out.

[Young Translator] Should I tell daddy to come?

Yes.

Very good, high five.

Now you captured a snake like a real man.

You too, very good, your father will clean up the snake now.

What a poisonous snake you've captured,

very good, well done.

And now, run and look for two or three other snakes.

For starters, put each snake that we find here.

There is a bag in the car where I pack the snakes in.

But so far they remain here with me.

It's possible that within the next moment,

another snake may appear, we always have to be ready.

Meanwhile Hassan and Ali found

what they've been looking for, a whip snake.

Its saliva contains a poisonous secretion

and its bite will cause swelling and pain.

Hassan quickly grabs the snake and shakes it.

It can't bite if its head is upside down.

A snake, another snake.

Pick it up, pack it between your legs.

No don't open your legs,

hold the snake with your legs together.

Now pull it up.

Take care of the head, now the head is coming out.

Don't be afraid.

Hold it again with your legs, yes.

Now let it look in the other direction.

Don't be afraid, concentrate.

Yes, very good.

Give it to me, yes very good.

This is a poisonous snake, give me your trousers.

These pants protect from snake bites.

They're made of a thick fabric.

And that is its poison.

That was a lot of poison.

If you want to capture a snake in nature,

then you can't touch it like this, that's wrong.

Because its teeth come out from below,

if you want to capture a snake,

you have to touch it like this.

You see Hassan, you have to touch it

from the back of its neck, very good.

And you hold it here with your other hand.

This way, exactly.

I hope you've learned it now.

An emergency call from the fire department,

they've managed to catch a snake but don't know

what to do with it.

Gholam Reza Arjanaki can always help in these cases.

Besides the snake catcher began his profession by chance.

When I was a child, I once climbed

up a tree to catch birds.

When I put my arm in the branches and grabbed,

I suddenly saw a snake between my fingers.

Out of fear, I did not release it and I saw how the snake

was struggling for her life in my hands.

Since then, I feel pity and no more fear.

Gholam wants to help the men get past

their fear of snakes.

In the past, they would've simply killed the snake.

The institute will pay the snake charmer

between 10 and 100 Euros for one captured snake.

It's lunchtime at the snake charmers home.

Gholam is part of the nomadic tribe of the Bakhtian.

Good food is important to him.

His theory is healthy food helps arm him

and his sons against snake venom.

We don't eat fried stuff,

more steamed food, only vegetable oil, all healthy.

I obviously live in the city but I also own a little house

in the countryside where I plant all these.

Our children don't get cookies nor chips.

We just eat healthy food.

The snake charmer takes care

of three wives and nine children.

Whenever my children requested a toy car

or a doll and cried, I gave them a snake and told them,

"there you go, that's your toy".

This family's everyday life

has an element of danger.

Once I was bitten by a snake

and in the hospital they told me I wouldn't survive.

It had injected a lot of poison into my finger.

I was five days in the intensive care unit

but I fought and laid my life into God's hands.

In my opinion a man must stay firm like a mountain,

not like water which simply flows away.

A mountain positions itself to a problem

and does not step back, not even an inch.

Thank God I survived, that's because I have no fear.

[Female Translator] I'm always a little worried

but what can I do,

my son wants to follow in his father's footsteps.

I used to sing professionally

but over the years my larynx has paralyzed by snake bites.

It was the cobra's venom, but I'm still able to sing.

Shall I?

(singing in foreign language)

[Young Translator] Who's there?

Daddy, we found a snake.

Snake alarm in the neighborhood.

Come on, stand up quickly.

Take the bag, it's back there you say?

It's a poisonous cat snake.

One careless move and the snake will bite.

Their father remains calm.

If the snake venom spreads throughout

the body, it can have serious consequences.

Here it had bitten in my little toe.

I didn't know it at first, it wasn't until the next day

that I noticed a snake had bitten me.

It did not hurt that much in the beginning.

It's more like a sting that drills into your flesh

and then the pain becomes worse

in different parts of my toes.

Around these toes back here,

I will be sure not to touch the wound.

Experts would advise against this method.

Gholam knows it's dangerous.

From a very early age he's been injecting tiny amounts

of snake venom into his children

to build up their tolerance.

This is first aid for a snake bite.

You have to suck out the venom out of the wound.

You must not have any open sores in your mouth.

That's the main reason why there's

snakes in buildings in the city.

In nature, people park their car in the shade.

Snakes hide under the car before making their way

to peoples' homes, this happens quite often.

Turned out well this time.

This time it was a poisonous cat snake.

[Young Translator] I have annoyed the snake,

I wanted to capture it but it defended itself.

Iran is one of the most snake rich

countries in the world.

Gholam Reza Arjanaki also keeps snakes at home

so he can constantly study their behavior.

What a snake, see I just put the snake

under my shirt, I can do that because I'm familiar

with snakes and know my way around them.

Of course you should not imitate that.

Snakes are certainly very dangerous,

even non venomous snakes can have a poisonous spit.

If human beings come into contact with them,

they can get sick.

That part gets infected

and the fear can also drive someone to death.

It's just under my sleeve.

I cultivate snakes in my sleeves, see,

there's a snake in my sleeve, get out.

The pharmacy sign is always the cobra.

Bemar means literally, "without snake",

which is the word for ill.

So the snake is a good thing.

It's said that anyone who is with a snake is healthy.

This patient will suffer from the effects

of poisoning for a long time.

The venom of the scaled viper had been clotting his blood

and the veins on his leg have burst.

Only the antidote serum can stop the effects from worsening.

[Female Translator] The doctor told him to go

to the hospital but he didn't want to listen to him.

After two weeks, his leg is swollen so badly,

so that we had to come here.

The snake charmer is often asked

to come to the hospital to determine what type

of snake has bitten the patient.

The snake that has bitten you

belongs to the viper group, the poisonous one.

It takes a few hours for the venom of the snake

to show its effects.

First the eyes start to burn.

Then you get heart and respiratory problems

and the veins under the skin look

as though they would burst.

This is the effect of the poison of a jawari snake.

If a viper bites you, then there is greater swelling

and the bitten part would turn black.

The leg here has not become black

but only red with fissures, that was a jawari snake.

Once again the snake catcher takes

his sons out to the grasslands to hunt.

This time Gholam is in search of cobras.

But cobras are very rare and their poison

is in high demand at the snake institutes.

This is the first time Gholam

has taken his sons cobra hunting.

If the snake goes into the threatening posture,

it will spread its carapace, ready for the attack.

[Young Translator] Daddy a snake, a snake.

The snake catcher has great respect

for the dangerous cobra.

Gholam holds the snake at a distance.

A cobra can spit its venom directly into the eyes

from over six feet away.

This caustic cocktail from the most dangerous snake species

leads to blindness.

See, this is the saliva it spit out.

It's slightly poisonous.

He gently places the snake into the bag.

The snake catcher doesn't want to hurt the snake.

Because the pharmaceutical industry

needs the venom of cobras, the cobras are slowly dying out.

The snakes just defend themselves,

they normally don't attack if you leave them alone.

Another assignment, the snake institute

sends him over 600 miles away to northeast Iran.

(singing in foreign language)

A farmer has called me.

There's a snake on a tree, it's so aggressive,

that they were afraid to go and get water.

Sounds like a cobra to me.

Cobras like to stay in trees where they

can hunt for birds.

Normally this sort of cobra is more shy

than aggressive as long as it's left alone.

Less than one quarter of a teaspoon

of its poison can kill 85 people.

A cobra bite is excruciating

and has almost killed him once before.

This snake's venom could save future

snake bite victim's lives, Gholam can't let it go.

But he needs both hands to climb down the tree.

The only solution is to take the snake in his mouth.

Even the most experienced snake catcher

is afraid of the cobra.

Where's the other cobra?

Who has opened the bag?

There was a cobra inside!

Who's opened the bag?

There was a cobra inside it!

The search for the cobra in the high grass

is hopeless, Gholam is angry with his careless children.

The error weigh heavy on the children

but they must take responsibility for their mistake.

[Young Translator] Yes, see my luck.

If if had been another snake,

it wouldn't be that bad but this one, that was a huge cobra.

[Young Translator] If it had just been a regular snake.

But a huge cobra, that's really bad.

Only one step towards a cobra and it turns around

and bites quickly.

Oh it was also a male, that didn't concern me at all.

Gholam hopes the other snake doesn't stay

near the watering hole

and become a new danger for these people.

Back home, the children continue their training

with poisonous snakes.

We always keep our emergency remedies

against snake bites close by.

This includes an antiserum against snake bites

and a detoxifying cream.

No matter how professional you are,

the first aid kit should always be nearby.

Gholam has already been bitten

by several snakes but the bite of the cobra

is one he'll never forget.

He still has to overcome his fear.

The snake immediately assumes its threatening posture

and gets ready to attack.

The snake charmer mimics its gestures.

No one else would dare do this.

The fluttering is a clear warning sign before the attack.

And then, it happens.

Not only that, it has bitten too.

A bite of a cobra, luckily Gholam withdrew his hand

before it could empty its poison.

Now he must overcome his fear.

The snake catcher imitates the movements of the cobra

and gets ready to attack.

This is not a trick, the snake is extremely toxic.

If you have sores in your mouth,

or if your teeth are bad, that's the same

as if the snake would've bitten you.

Quickly get me the yogurt drink.

If you've been bitten by a snake,

you should eat dairy products as much as possible.

I'm gonna drink a yogurt drink.

Dairy neutralizes the poison.

Look at my hand, it doesn't hurt anymore.

Most any other person would need to go

immediately to the hospital.

I'm gonna drink this yogurt drink.

See, even my mug has a snake picture on it.

Snakes represent my life, they're everything to me.

Gholam has overcome his fear of the cobra.

Now his five year old son has to prove

he's capable of becoming a snake catcher.

His brother Ali already passed

this exam two years ago.

Hassan cannot show any fear when the poisonous snakes

are placed into the tank with him.

If he stays calm, so will the snakes

but his biggest test is yet to come, the cobra.

The cobra's venom destroys nerves and tissues.

It causes circulatory collapse and shortness of breath.

Within an hour, the bite victim will die.

That's normal for children.

Of course there's always a risk.

There's thin level of death to which one moves.

The snake that I now want to put

into the aquarium is the cobra.

A gram of poison from the snake can kill 85 people.

That's how dangerous it is.

The poison is 100% fatal.

A potentially lethal feat.

The snake catcher has prepared an antiserum just in case.

But nobody know whether it would be enough

to save the boy in time if he's bitten.

The snakes don't recognize him

as a human being, the boy's willpower is evident here.

He doesn't have the slightest bit of fear.

I know from experience, that one hint of a cold sweat

could provoke the snake to bite.

Hassan is absolutely fearless even more daring.

Even his father has the utmost respect for this.

He has passed the test.

Gholam Reza Arjanaki is relieved and proud.

He has taught his sons well.

They are as courageous as their father.

Fear is hopelessness.

If I show any fear, the one thing

that I'm afraid of, will happen.

God's will, will be done.