In production

EUROPE WILDEST HERITAGE

ARTE G.E.I.E. | DOCLIGHTS

Heritage’s treasure

IN THIS STUNNING NEW SERIES, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CULTURAL HERITAGE SITES IN FRANCE AND EUROPE WILL LAY BARE THEIR WILDEST SECRETS.

Mont Saint-Michel, the Loire valley châteaux, Alhambra or Bastei bridge… Every year, these breathtaking sites attract tourists from across the world. But hidden in the meanderings off the beaten track, fascinating and unexpected stories unfold : the stories of the wildlife that inhabits these places. For, although these famous European cultural heritage sites have been built over the centuries, they are located within areas of outstanding natural beauty, with their own iconic species such as the Red deer of Chambord, the Black stork of Pont Bastei or the toads of the Alhambra. Today, the preservation of these exceptional sites can no longer be done without taking into account the wildlife. And after several centuries of ignoring each other, these two worlds are finally coming together to show that natural and historical heritage can become allies! Over the course of four seasons, this prestigious documentary collection revisits the great European heritage sites from the perspective of the wildlife that inhabits them, offering an unusual look at these mythical sites, with fur, feathers or scales.

FORMAT : 10 X 43’ | 4 X 52’ | 4K

COPRODUCTION : ARTE G.E.I.E. | DOCLIGHTS

LIVRAISON : ETE 2024

INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST : ARTE DISTRIBUTION

 

 

Naval battles

In the 20th century, the oceans became strategic battlegrounds and the world’s major powers built increasingly powerful warships.
Unfortunately, these Clashes of Titans were rarely filmed, and the wrecks of some of these defeated giants now lie at the bottom of the ocean.

Co-produced in close collaboration with the famous video game World of Warships, this second season brings us to the discovery of the famous battleship “Bismarck”, the dreadful German U-boats, the extreme and unknown adventures of the Arctic naval convoys, and the story of the French navy during the Second World War. With the help of historians, engineers, architects and senior officers, this new season will immerse the viewer in the greatest naval battles of the 20th century ultra- realistic 3D CGI and drill down into the heart of the superstructures that fought them, uncovering their complex engineering and technological feats.

FORMAT :  4 x 52 ‘ | HD

CO-PRODUCTION : WORLD OF WARSHIPS

 

 

In development

WAR OF THE FLOWERS

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Julien Naar

Fearsome lords

South Africa, Cape of Storms. Imagine a kingdom where three clans reign supreme. Imagine the power struggles, the strategies to continuously conquer new territories and ensure their family lines. These lords, heirs to dynasties thousands of years old, are… flowers!

This astonishing and unsuspected realm is the Cape Floral Kingdom: 9,000 species of plants live here – more than anywhere else on the planet… And all are pursuing one goal: to ensure their survival and that of their clan. To occupy the land, to starve or smother their adversaries, they engage in epic battles on the surface or underground. And they’ve learned how to bribe, manipulate and subjugate with impunity. Sunbirds, dwarf chameleons, elephant-shrews, monkeys: all live under the relentless domination of plants.

It’s a ruthless world, but one where the rules are well-known, set in stone millions of years ago. But a new threat will strike the kingdom. Invaders from Table Mountain, aided by the most fearsome of allies: wildfire.
To save their kingdom, the flowers will have to fight their ultimate battle: THE WAR OF THE FLOWERS.

FORMAT : 2 x 52′ + 52′ SCIENCE OF (4K)

PRODUCER : NICOLAS CENNAC

 

 

A YEAR AMONG WOLVES

WRITTEN & DIRECTED by TANGUY DUMORTIER, OLIVIER LARREY & YVES FAGNIART

The return of the wolf

Imagine spending an entire year in the midst of a wolf pack. Being fully immersed for four seasons straight in wilderness inhabited by brown bear and wolverines. It’s somewhere in the no man’s land between Finland and Russia that the photographer, Olivier, and Yves, the painter, are holed up in a blind only a few square meters in size – lying in wait… Here in self-imposed isolation and virtually invisible, they’re in an ideal position to witness the intimate daily routines of Europe’s apex predators. Thanks to their exceptional proximity to the wolf pack and their behaviors, captured on film for the first time, LIFE AMONGST WOLVES offers viewers a rare inside look at the world of the continent’s top predators.

“To succeed, we blended into the landscape. The wolves were well-aware that we were there, but they understood that we were always just doing our thing and posed no threat to them.”
Olivier Larrey.

FORMAT :  52 ’ | 4K

Written & directed by : TANGUY DUMORTIER, OLIVIER LARREY & YVES FAGNIART

Co-production : BELGICA FILMS

 

 

THE BUFFALO TREATY - REWILDING THE GREAT PLAINS

DIRECTED BY THIERRY ROBERT

Rewilding the great plains?

The Native Americans of North America want to rescue the most threatened ecosystem on the planet – the Great Plains.

They are Lakota, Assiniboine, Sioux. These tribes, from Montana to the Dakotas, have signed a treaty to restore the once spectacular biodiversity of these lands: the Buffalo Treaty. It’s an effort that unites scientists, environmental activists and even ranchers dedicated to witnessing this wild and legendary landscape thrive again. When the Conquest of the American West began two hundred years ago, these grasslands supported millions of animals, including some of the largest herds that Earth has ever seen… But as white settlers colonized the West, their practices would not only threaten the wildlife and habitat to near-extinction but also the Native American people, whose culture and livelihoods had relied on this ecosystem for millennia. But today, despite numerous obstacles, the descendants of these first nations are determined to rewild the Great Plains.

By focusing their conservation efforts on the return of an iconic species, the bison, they hope to recreate an exceptional ecosystem, considered even more important than the Amazon in the fight against global warming. Through their voices and actions, our film will recount, for the first time, the important, dramatic and moving environmental story of the Great Plains.

FORMAT :  52’ | 90′

WRITTEN BY : NICOLAS CENNAC & THIERRY ROBERT

DIRECTED BY  : THIERRY ROBERT

 

 

THE OLM - SECRETS OF THE DRAGON

DIRECTED BY NICOS ARGILLET & FLORIAN LAUNETTE

Secrets of the dragons

Deep in the heart of Europe, scientists and naturalists are in a race against time to reveal the secrets of a strange and extraordinary creature: the Olm, or cave salamander. Imagine a subterranean world of cathedral caves and unexplored underground rivers. In recent years, this Terra Incognita, in central and southeastern Europe, has become the site of major scientific expeditions. They come because this labyrinth of caves between Croatia and Slovenia is the land of the olm, an animal that some say resembles a baby dragon. A tiny amphibian with an extraterrestrial look, the olm is sometimes called the proteus or “human fish” for its translucent skin.

And it possesses superpowers that have fascinated scientists for more than two hundred years: the ability to regenerate its limbs, highly developed senses, unusually long life-expectancy, and absence of any signs of aging … Some think the olm may hold the key to eternal youth. Thanks to progress in imaging techniques and genetics, studies of the olm are just beginning to offer clues to the secrets of its superpowers along with hopes of promising developments for medical science in the future. But the habitat of the olm is under environmental and human threat and the little dragon could well disappear before revealing its secrets. Scientists and biologists across Europe have mobilized to save the species before it’s too late.

FORMAT :  52 ’ | 4K

WRITTEN BY : MÉGANE CHÊNE & FLORIAN LAUNETTE

DIRECTED BY : NICOS ARGILLET & FLORIAN LAUNETTE

 

 

MISSION BIODYSSEUS

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY PAR THIERRY ROBERT. WITH ALBAN MICHON.

100 days under the sea ice in an autonomous habitat with the bioceanauts

An international expedition for a unique confinement experience in the world. Live independently under the Arctic sea ice in an underwater habitat thanks to the technologies of tomorrow. Everything will be recycled including the breathed air thanks to a micro algae generator. It’s a life-size laboratory: the underwater ISS.

This expedition foreshadows the future of underwater and space exploration. Will we be able to stay several months in these extreme conditions, immersed in the frozen depths?

FORMAT :  90 ’ | 4K

WRITTEN & BROADCASTED :  THIERRY ROBERT

WITH :  ALBAN MICHON

 

 

LION OF THE ICE AGE

WRITTEN BY Alexandra Barbot. DIRECTED PAR THIERRY ROBERT

Mysterious cave lions

It was the top predator of the Ice Age, the king of the vast frozen steppes from Asia to Europe… Then suddenly – the Cave Lion disappeared from the face of the Earth some 15,000 years ago. Solving the mystery of its extinction and understanding how this mythical animal lived, is the mission of Philippe Fosse, world specialist on this species. His “Holy Grail”: to find an intact body of a Cave Lion.

For this journey back in time, the paleontologist will venture to the farthest reaches of Siberia where, in recent years, melting permafrost has revealed sleeping giants such as woolly mammoths and woolly rhinos, species that also vanished thousands of years ago.

It’s along the most remote riverbanks of Yakutia, that Philippe Fosse and a team of Franco-Russian scientists will look for signs of this animal. He hopes to find a well- preserved Cave Lion carcass within the subsurface layers of permanently frozen soil, rock and ice known as permafrost. A discovery that could shed new light on the mysteries surrounding the great extinctions of the Ice Age.

An exceptional human and scientific adventure from the paintings of France’s Chauvet Caves to the frozen rivers of Siberia.

FORMAT :  90 ’ + 52 ‘ | 4K

PRODUCER : NICOLAS CENNAC

 

 

white page, black ink

WRITTEN BY ALAIN MABANCKOU & THIERRY ROBERT. DIRECTED BY THIERRY ROBERT

Blackness?

Alain Mabanckou – the renowned novelist, poet, journalist and academic – takes us on a journey that follows the trajectory of his life, from Congo-Brazzaville, where he was born, to France and the United States of America. In each of the four significant cities on his path: Pointe-Noire, Paris, Detroit, Los Angeles, he’s the personification of the modern African, drawing us into his thoughts and daydreams, like a long cinematographic tracking shot of people he’s met… places he’s seen.

In assessing the writings of explorers and adventurers – whether from recent centuries or present day, from slavery to decolonization – he notes a consistently “exotic” and paternalistic take on Africa and Africans, where a Black man is more an object of curiosity than a human being… A savage, inferior in every way. With his great laugh, he demolishes this narrow view of humanity while leading us to the doors of great pre-Pharaonic Black civilizations.

We journey through our History through Mabanckou’s eyes. It’s the story that all human beings have in common, whether we like it or not… whether we’re brave enough to face it or not.

FORMAT :  90 ’ | 4K

DIRECTED BY : THIERRY ROBERT

 

 

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