The creator of the “Titanic Syndrome” films his latest documentary dedicated to whales. For the purposes of filming, he installed a replica of the mammal on Vauville beach, so realistic that it even deceives holidaymakers.
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Larger than life, a whale seems stranded on the beach of Vauville in Normandy. Baptized Albertine, she is the star of the next documentary Guardians of the Planet (Whale Nation), by director Jean-Albert Lièvre. The animal of twelve meters for more than 400 kilos is not composed of flesh and bone but of a mixture of wood, polystyrene mixed with resin.
An ultra realistic result to the point of misleading vacationers. “We saw a beached whale so we ran with buckets of water. When it arrived it was a fake”, laughs a passer-by. For the purposes of filming, which began two years ago, the director had the sculpture of the mammal custom-built. She was painted to look like a real whale filmed off the coast of Tahiti.
This stranding on the tongue of sand will be the entry sequence of the feature film scheduled for February in dark rooms. As a team tries to carry out a rescue operation, viewers will learn about Albertine’s life from her origins to the history of her species. A philosophical documentary on the role played by these huge mammals, present on the planet for 50 million years. “We always tended to think that we were the only ones on this Earth. Whales exist to remind us that there are other intelligent societies that have their own means of communication and perhaps know this planet better than we do.”, specifies the director Jean-Albert Lièvre.
A topical theme that questions viewers about their relationship with wildlife and sounds the alarm in the face of declining biodiversity. The documentary is freely inspired by the eponymous book by activist poet Heathcote Williams and actor Jean Dujardin will narrate the majestic cetacean’s odyssey.
Guardians of the planet (Whale Nation) by Jean-Albert Lièvre, scheduled for February 22, 2023 in theaters