Arte Distribution

The Pyrenees are one of Europe’s oldest mountain range and shelters a wildlife that is almost impossible to observe, as the area is inaccessible. Our team lives on site and will film its wildlife for two years. 

Discover wildlife filming behind the scenes and find out that more often than not, animals are much more cunning than men. Unfortunately, this lush world is still not very accessible – the animals fear the presence of man in this emblematic massif. To discover them, you have to investigate, find clues, follow tracks and be very patient before you finally get the chance to see them.
Luckily, the journey proves to be just as exciting as the objective: chance upon a mountain-size game of hide-and-seek where man must understand nature and tame it in order to discover its secrets.
 
Also available : 3x43'

Beneath the oceans’ surface, thousands of volcanoes have yet to be discovered or explored. Mount La Pérouse is one of these sleeping giants, off the coast of Reunion Island. It is a genuine oasis of life that could be sheltering sprawling coral reefs.

The scientific expedition “La Pérouse” has made it its goal to reveal the sunken haven's secrets. This geological anomaly is only known to a few    Réunionese longline fishers who regularly enjoy miraculous catches there. But as for oceanographers, they still consider the area to be a true “terra incognita”, a mystery to solve. To date, no diver has ever approached it.
What kind of species lives there and at what depth?  What predators feed there? Are there any rare, or even unknown, fish? To what birds and marine mammals is it home?
Underwater GPS, photogrammetry, environmental DNA, 3D cartography, with the help of the most modern scientific techniques, all will be revealed about one of the last virgin territories on Earth, located in the French economic zone. Embark on an unprecedented human and scientific adventure.

Hernin and Marcellin Abong are two Vanuatu twin brothers with very different backgrounds: one has become the “Very Great Chief” of his tribe, while the other is an ethno-archaeologist. 

Their culture is slowly but surely disappearing forever. To keep a record of it, they both delve into the most remote parts of Vanuatu in search of the customs and rites of their people. On foot and by canoe, their journey takes them to grandiose and isolated territories, to discover spectacular and unknown rituals, even for them.

All along the Arctic coast of Norway, there's a bloody battle going on between three different species: orcas, whales…and humans! And it's all over the vast schools of herring that migrate to the Frozen North to seek shelter there in the fjords.! 

Follow Didier Noirot, one of the world's greatest underwater cameramen, as he tracks down the giants of the deep - using 8K underwater cameras and drones - and dives right into the heart of the hunt. Orcas – or "killer whales" – have developed what is called the "carousel" technique for catching herring: they surround them with bubbles then drive them up to the surface. But now the other whales are no longer scared of joining in to claim their share of the booty. Then there are the humans, with their huge nets: they too are after the same prize. Who is going to win the Herring War?

In Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, the Minangkabau are a matriarchal society. While Koranic law attributes only one-third of the inheritance to girls, the property of a Minangkabau family is passed on from mother to daughter and men can be repudiated by their wives.

Reini is a young woman from the Minangkabau ethnic group in West Sumatra. She is getting married. She goes to pick up her future husband from his parents’. According to their tradition, she is the one who has to lead him to the ceremony where the guests are waiting. After the wedding, the young husband will move in with his in-laws and take care of the children of his clan, while Reini will work in the fields.
 
But in Indonesia, in recent years, Islam has become more rigid. Nowadays more and more men want to restrict women's freedom. Reini knows that the Minangkabau way of life and traditions are in danger, but she plans to fight to protect them.

In this true "Kingdom of Women", the female presence is visible, unavoidable even. In Shillong, they are everywhere on the front lines: in banks, schools and even in parliament.  

They are the ones who sell meat or cigarettes behind tiny street stalls, and the ones who sell vegetables or fruit on the side of the road. Men most often meet each other playing cards or rocking a baby while accompanying another child to school.
But this ancestral model of society could well falter: among the Khasi, men are not necessarily satisfied with their fate and have begun to rebel.
A movement for the liberation of men was launched a few years ago – it is called Symbai Rimbai Tong Hai. It demands property rights for male children and a greater role for men in the family. “We find it unfair that women have all the power and we have none. We have no role to play except to feed our babies and change their diapers. I have friends who were so frustrated that they started drinking and taking drugs. We want to feel useful to society. After all, we have rights too”; some men in the community are now protesting.
 
Will the Khasi, this rare bastion of women's power in India, resist this surge in activism?

Among the Moso people in southwest China, women are the heads of households, the farm managers, they pass on their names and property to their daughters, they choose their lovers, and they do not marry. The very ideas of fatherhood and marriage are almost unknown, sexuality is free.

The Moso say that “man is like the effect of rain on the grass, no matter who does it, what counts is that the grass is watered”.
 
They are a model community for the UN, yet their way of life is threatened.
Nowadays, the Chinese government is cracking down on cultural minorities – notably attacking them through finance. Tourism is developing in this region and advantageous bank loans are being granted to married couples. Western-style marriage has become a fashionable phenomenon.
 
Lamu is an Ama – a mother, the head of her household. She is faced with a problem that is eating away at her. Her niece Erchema wants to marry and live with her husband... This decision is totally incomprehensible to Lamu.
  For the Moso people, marriage is a threat to harmony, an essential value that comes before anything else, including money.
What will become of the Mosos?

In the form of a mother tincture or ointment, Arnica helps to treat bruises, edema, muscle and joint pain. 

This beneficial plant with multiple therapeutic virtues is mainly picked in Markstein – in the Vosges Mountains. Most of the harvest goes to Weleda Laboratories, an international manufacturer of cosmetics and natural medicines. Clément Urion of the "Ferme du Bien-Être" (Wellbeing Farm) is one of the only people authorized to harvest the miraculous plants; it is a strictly regulated activity that requires a lot of expertise...

Menton nestles at the very tip of the French Riviera. Between the blue Mediterranean and the ocher of the facades, the green stands out, witness of omnipresent vegetation. On the heights of the Riviera town, collections of rare plants were imported by the British.

Passionate about travel and botany, they have set up gardens that look like tropical jungles.

In the heart of Burma, at almost nine hundred meters above sea level and spanning over 120 square kilometers, Inle Lake offers one of the most dreamlike landscapes in Asia. This is where the Inthas live, in multi-colored villages on stilts.

A people with a unique way of life, one of its kinds. Fishermen, tightrope walkers who are seemingly walking on water. Innumerable canals leading to strange floating gardens. A lifetime on water.

In the far north of Norway lies the county of Finnmark, a harsh and wild land. More than 4,000 years ago, the first Samis settled on these windswept moors. They develop their own religion, imbued with shamanism and a lifestyle in harmony with nature.

Today their descendants, still present in Norway, are one of the last indigenous peoples in Europe.

From India to the Bijagos archipelago, discover the last of the world’s matriarchies through the stories of the women who run them. Each of the five films in the collection is an immersion into one of these societies, through the eyes of a woman.