ONCE UPON A TIME… OUR FORESTS

Once Upon a Time: Our Forests takes us on a marvellous human adventure – one that has united Europeans with their forests for 12,000 years. An epic story divided into three episodes: the conquest of the forest, from the emergence of agriculture to the respite brought by the Great Plague; the story of the forest’s near-disappearance following the Age of Discovery, with the surge in demand for timber from European navies, right up to the Industrial Revolution; and finally, the story of the forest’s revival, with the first large-scale reforestation programmes and the emergence of ecological thinking in the 19th century, right up to the threats facing the forest today.

A cultural history of the forest that we will explore by bringing Europeans to life through evocative sequences that will open each segment: hunter-gatherers reaping the bounty provided by the forest’s rebirth as the ice receded; the first farmers from the East who, for the first time, altered the forested landscape; the abbeys of the early monks who cleared entire swaths of the European forest; the builders of cathedrals; and even contemporary environmental activists, among others. 

Through these descriptions, we will witness the transformation of the forest, the species that make it up, and the animals that live there... but above all, we will see another history of Europe unfold, an epic one, often overlooked because it is viewed through a new lens: that of the intimate and life-sustaining bond that has linked Europeans to their forests for millennia.

Directors : Thibaud Marchand and Camille Robert

Authors : Thibaud Marchand and Camille Robert

Production : O2B Films

Broadcaster : ARTE

Running time : 3 x 60 min

In development