Arte Distribution

In the Middle Ages, Paris gave birth to the world’s most famous stone edifice: Notre-Dame. 7 centuries have passed since its construction. Watch history come alive thanks to 3D reproduction of the monument. A dramatic tale of ambition, talent, destruction, blood and rebirth. 

We tell the incredible 700 year saga of the builders and Church’s Men who invented modern day architecture in France and throughout Europe. Driven by the quest for perfect harmony, they created one of the most emblematic sacred monuments known today. 3D animation and documentary will come together in a history film to give an accurate representation of this great historical fresco. Indeed, the fictional tale, entirely in animation sequences will be the backbone of the film, around which the documentary scenes will be built to provide specific historic and technical explanations.

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a Buddhist city of incredible wealth, from which they are unearthing thousands of treasures. However, their time is running out, the government having ceded the rights to the copper mine to a Chinese company, threatening to destroy everything...

The ancient city of Mes Aynak, literally "the source of copper", built its power on the precious metal present in its subsoil. On this site, active for more than a thousand years, the monks did not just carry out religious activities. They abandoned their currency and created a banking network throughout the region. It is this wealth which gave them the means of an intense cultural production, as evidenced by the many treasures found by archaeologists: more than three thousand statues, but also parchments, pieces of goldsmith's work, jewels, pottery ...
The Mes Aynak site offers a unique opportunity to explore Afghan Buddhism, a period of history that still has many secrets to reveal. The remains could allow archaeologists to understand in what ways the religion of Buddha, born in the plain of the Ganges, was shaped here, in the heart of Central Asia, before spreading to the rest of Asia.

Saqqara, Egypt, 1850. Auguste Mariette discovered the Serapeum, the burial place of the Apis bull, one of the most sacred sites in ancient Egypt. Before the site crumbled, he managed to extract treasures that represent 10% of the Louvre’s Egyptian collection today. 

He also managed to map out a network of underground tunnels leading to other burial sites he did not have time to uncover. We have the exclusive access to follow a team of archeologists, mandated by the Louvre Museum, to pick up where Mariette had left off.

This science documentary is led like a police investigation into pre-Colombian mummies from Chile and Peru, one of whom, RASPAR CAPAC, inspired The Seven Crystal Balls from The Adventures of Tintin by famous Belgian cartoonist Hergé. 

In reality, the mummy Rascar Capac arrived at the Art & History Museum in Brussels in the middle of the 19th century under unknown circumstances. By uncovering the origins of Rascar Capac, the film reveals previously unknown facts about his life, the reasons for his death and even which illnesses he had.
 
The documentary follows the investigation in the field, in specialised laboratories in Belgium and France and along the wild Pacific coast of Chile and Peru. Using modern technology to research and carry out tests on Rascar and other similar mummies will allow us to understand a lot more about these pre-Columbian mummies who, compared to their Egyptian counterparts, we still know very little about. 
 
©Panoramique Terre/Un film à la patte

Anti-Judaism, Judeophobia, hatred of Jews... Anti-Semitism is a long-standing phenomenon – but where does it come from?
It has evolved for more than two thousand years, while many different societies rose and fell.

This investigation retraces the genealogy of antisemitism, from its origins to the present day – and for the first time with images. Some thirty leading international experts have created a fresco that will explore the multiple facets of the phenomenon and its evolution through the ages. To do so, they have been drawing on the traces left throughout the world and the 3D historical reconstructions developed by Ubisoft for its Assassin's Creed series.

After the success of the first season of THE GREAT GREEK MYTHS, we bring you the next chapter! An adaptation of Homer's Iliad. An epic poem which recounts the Trojan War.

The Greeks cross the sea to lay siege to Troy and reclaim the beautiful Helen, abducted from her husband King Menelaus of Sparta by Prince Paris of Troy. After a ten-year siege of the city walls of Troy, the war turns in the Greeks favour thanks to the heroics of the famous Achilles. But were these mortals really the heroes of this war or were they merely pawns in the hands of the Gods?
Following on from the first season, each episode alternates scenes of original animation created in 3D and a rich iconography chosen from the whole of art history, from Antiquity to the Modern era.

This series tells world history through a few major dates, revisited through the prism of memory. Driven by the accessible and passionate delivery of historian Patrick Boucheron, history comes to life under our eyes with bold and entertaining graphics.

A date is a snapshot, a flashback which requires crossing disciplines such as history, art, archeology and literature for a vibrant and sensitive reading of the past. It arouses our childhood curiosity, recalling when we dreamed of a time machine.
The series is conceived to potentially become a key reference in teaching history.

The Conquistadors wrote the story of the Inca Empire as we know it. 10 years of recent scientific and archeological research has allowed us to uncover another truth that contradicts history books. Where the Inca people come from, how they were organized, and why did they disappear so suddenly. 

The film will reveal that ancient scriptures have been found, proving that the Inca Empire did have an alphabet and writing, contrary to what we have always thought! We will follow experts on the field, from the Machu Picchu, the depths of Lake Titicaca, Cuzco and the Vatican archives, using 3D architectural reconstitutions, to answer the question: who are the Incas?

Through 3D digital reconstructions of the monuments and expert lighting, we will tell the story of the island of Philae, one of the largest Pharaonic sites, unique in its kind.

The island was submerged in the 1980’s when Nasser built his dam, but the Temple of Philae was saved in an outstanding international operation.
Today Egyptologists return to study the remains and cross data with new digital technologies implemented by a new generation of Egyptologists. A real scientific challenge to understand and reconstruct this mysterious ancient labyrinth on the Nile.

In 1945, Nasser’s project to build a lake in Southern Egypt threatened to submerge hundreds of ancient temples, including of Ramses II and Cleopatra. Thanks to an unprecedented international mobilization, discover how this exceptional heritage was saved.

When they returned from southern Egypt, travelers reported the existence of temples between the Nubian desert and the Nile. Majestic stone colossi emerging from the sands kept the doors and their secrets. For centuries, Abu Simbel, Dendur, Amada and other monuments were victims of looting, earthquakes, desert encroachment and floods, only to end up almost being swallowed up by the waters in the 20th century. In 1954, the announcement of the construction of a dam threatened the whole of Nubia and more than 20 ancient shrines. Some temples were dismantled in a hurry and relocated to artificial islands, others were even shipped abroad in places such as Madrid, Turin or even New York. Former construction site workers attest to the grueling working conditions during operations. We also present archives revealing the ingenious rescue plans explained in 3D animations.

Almost 100 years after the discovery of King's Tut's Tomb, it is time to tell the story in a new light. This film uses 2D and 3D imagery to reconstruct the tomb, the mummy, the funerary objects and the topography of the famous valley of the Kings. 

Ninety years later, for the first time, most of these objects will finally be brought together in the precinct of the great Museum of Giza. Some of them will make their way to the U.S.A. and Paris, where they will be exposed at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industries in the autumn of 2018 - and then in London, Berlin, Tokyo and Sidney. This film is the story of the discovery of a treasure of which we know only a few artefacts. It is also an investigation, and these objects will be so many clues along the way. What do these artefacts tell us about the king and the period of his reign ? In what circumstances were they discovered and taken away from the pharaoh’s tomb ? These are some of the many elements of this documentary narrative. 
 

There have been countless works of fiction based on true stories. It seems we can never have enough of them. Everyday folk are all the rage - and they often make excellent fictional characters. This documentary series takes up where fictional adaptations leave off and tells the real-life stories they are based on, using a wealth of archive material to retrace the extraordinary lives of the ordinary people involved.

Since the 1990s, our interest in true stories has skyrocketed. The shelves of bookshops are lined with them, and they fuel box-office hits. "Based on a true story" has become a favourite advertising hook, with its promise of strong emotions and dramatic events. Over and above its selling power, our fascination with real-life stories says much about the times we live in and our hunger for authenticity. In a world in which traditional moral criteria are becoming blurred, society is desperately searching for something real to hold onto. And people reason that if a story is true, it could easily have happened to them.