The film begins at the top of the Cévennes. We follow a small stream from its source, along its modest route, all the way to steep gorges and imposing limestone monoliths, ending on a small beach where the stream has now become a river. This small beach is one of the four arenas that we will present in turn: the small beach, the rock, the cliff, and the monumental poplar.

Each arena is inhabited by an animal: a beaver, an otter, a bee-eater, and a black kite. These arenas are initially filmed in a “contained” manner, without any relationship between them, on a small scale, distant scope filming.

In these early minutes, the narration focuses on the idea of inhabiting space; of living somewhere. What does it mean to inhabit the world? How do we choose where to live? How do we eat? Who are our neighbours? These are all notions that, as humans, we feel we understand very well. But do we truly? We will soon find out.

The characters and their tensions

The narration will quickly establish the tensions specific to each of the main characters. From sequence to sequence, they will have to overcome obstacles and face dangers.

A mother beaver and her two cubs. Emerging from winter torpor, Mother Beaver needs to find a place to dig her hut that is easily accessible to her baby beavers, safe from predators, and close to an abundant food source.

A bee-eater. Returning from Africa with the coming of spring, he must jostle with his peers to dig his nest and court his future mate.

An otter. This mysterious creature is present, yet we cannot see it. A precious sighting, it will be the subject of a filmmaker’s relentless quest to find it.

A human and his tribe. As a filmmaker and his family, experiencing confinement, open their eyes little by little to their immediate environment, they begin to track the animals around their home. Their secret goal: to identify each of their feathered and furry neighbours to understand their immediate environment, and find a way to coexist in peace with other living things.

We follow their parallel destinies. Little by little, they will cross paths, separate, enter into conflict, or to the contrary, create alliances, until all worlds merge around the same climactic event at the end of the film.

A distant gaze

When we discover them for the first time, all the river’s animals, humans included, are filmed with a distant spectator-like gaze. The viewer watches events much as a naturalist might observe them through binoculars.

There is a sparing use of narration to introduce each animal’s biology; its concerns, which will allow infusion into the viewer. These kinds of traditional narrative interjections are only used in service to the story, not to convey facts per se, but to nourish the dramaturgy.

Throughout the distant gaze of this first part, we understand that the existence of each of the animals is intimately linked to the others who share the river. Gradually, the four arenas will draw nearer to one another, until the reveal that they are all, in reality, one and the same place: one little piece of river at the bottom of the garden.

The distant gaze we have on the animals draws nearer…

Part 2

Man enters the circle

Until now, humans have appeared in the film only in distant and brief ways: a silhouette on the horizon; a bridge; the sounds of chainsaws... 

As the sequences progress, the camera draws closer to them at the same speed as it does the other animals, until it lands intimately close, connected with their daily lives.

The voice-over that has guided us changes tone. Now we hear a more personal voice emerge. It is as though the narrative has migrated into the skull of the man – the filmmaker - we are following. This male narrative is now a speech anchored in the present, beset with pragmatic considerations and imbued with human emotions. It is a speech significantly different from the beginning of the film, which was somewhat disconnected from the realities on the ground.

In an evolving history, flashback shows us who this human is, and why he settled there. His eternal restlessness in roaming the world as in international wildlife photographer, travelling the planet in a ceaseless search for novelty. The consumerism inherent in this kind of nomadic lifestyle: the use of resources, time, distraction, sacrificed at the altar of so-called “adventure”.

The picture painted shows a couple building their home, motivated by animals on the other side of the world, while barely seeing the animals living closely in their midst. Then suddenly – everything stops.

Confinement.

All cloistered at home, their eyes are opened to the living, immediate environment surrounding them. The filmmaker awakens. They are not alone. Life is all around them.

Finding his place

With the magnitude of global events, changes occur at the most minute level. Our male narrator’s vision of Nature is changed. It is omniscient and immediate. From now on, he knows that he can no longer be a spectator. He wishes become a part of this great cycle of life. 

But how to go about it? The family begins by carefully observing their furry and feathered neighbours.

Part 3

Connection

The monumental poplar that sheltered the kite’s nest collapses beneath the repeated attacks of the mother beaver.

We discover the interconnectedness of the four arenas: they all touch upon one another. All the creatures are concentrated there. Even the otter finally makes its appearance.

All the animals gather around the fallen tree. As they respond to the new challenges it presents, the viewer is treated to a cinema of the senses. The camera has drawn closer; the intimate links between species become more clear. The appearance of the otter seems to threaten the baby beavers, until we discover that it cohabits without difficulty amongst the other animals. 

In the moonlight, the beavers engage in a love display and mate on the submerged trunk. Other beavers join the site and dig lodges nearby. Life seems to flourish and thrive, until an ill omen: the otter is hit by a car. The sequence is plunged into the torpor of winter.

Part 4

Drought

Spring returns, and with it two new otters appear. There seems a thriving hope for renewal. Yet quickly, a problem arises. The expected rains do not come. 

Shot by shot, the river gradually empties. Implied devastation becomes explicit. We will now follow each protagonist in this growing tragedy.

Beavers will move to areas that still have some water and commence the all-encompassing search for food and shelter. Kingfishers will also have more difficulty finding sustenance, while fish will die from lack of oxygen…

At this moment in the film, the aesthetics of the image are disrupted. The soft lights and delicate movements of the camera from the beginning of the film disappear. Beauty is no longer a priority. This treatment of the images highlights the catastrophic situation that the living are about to endure. The narration also changes, becoming edged with a touch of anger, and occasional eruptions of disillusionment.

Harsh images emerge. From little water, to less, to no water at all. Marooned fish die. Crayfish seek shade on the burning ground. Beavers fight to keep their lodges. Large mammals and birds gather around the scarce water points under the safety of nightfall. The spectacle seems reminiscent of the atmosphere of a dry season in the African savannah. A disaster looms before our eyes. Will they survive?

At no time during the film is a notion of “global warming” proposed. The story consists of jarring, accumulating observations, impressions and poetry on the fragility and resilience of life. The viewers will make their journey and conclusions alone. 

Part 5

A return of hope

With the harsh drama playing out before the eyes of the viewer and suffering animals alike, a feeling of bitterness emerges amongst the humans: the idea of losing a treasure that they have just discovered. But quickly, the children set the record straight and put an end to the whining. We find them with nets and coolers, trying to transfer the last live fish and frogs into the few remaining pools of water. A desperate, futile gesture from the point of view of adults, but significant for a child who does not understand why we would stand by and do nothing as we let the animals die.

And then, amidst a return of fighting spirit amongst the humans – a spirit that the animals themselves, arguably, never lost – a miracle happens. The return of the rains.
After teasing the viewer’s nerves by several false promises, it finally arrives, devastating in the violence of its floods, but jubilant testimony to the durability of life.

Epilogue

The film ends on a sequence full of hope and contemplation. Life resumes. The beavers rebuild their old lodges. The otters do not move back in, but they come back from time to time. Kites and be a-eaters reconstruct their nests. Once again, we see the flourishing of all the animals that we followed throughout the film. 

We hope the drought will not happen again. But it has indelibly changed us all.