Mona Lisa Production

It was long believed that animals only played to learn, only mated to reproduce and only took drugs by accident. But sometimes, they just do it for fun! Research has revealed that animals seek for pleasure just like humans do, and that there are many ways in which they enjoy themselves. Did you know that rats loved to play hide-and-seek? That primates played erotic games to ease tensions within their groups? Or that reindeers were quite fond of hallucinogenic mushrooms? Scientists show that this quest for pleasure – as wild as it can get – might even be a key of evolution and biodiversity! Combining the testimonies of international ethologists, scientific archives and sequences showing the animals in their natural habitats, this unusual documentary reveals the complexity of animal pleasure.

In the heart of southern France there is a fog-prone area where, according to legend, a bloodthirsty creature wreaked havoc 250 years ago. A rumor is spreading again in this legendary place, as eyewitnesses report an animal with large paws and a long tail that crosses roads in a single leap - powerful enough to tear down a horse and leave it mutilated in the pasture. Is the Beast of Gévaudan back? The animal photographer Bruno Loisel has a supposedly more rational explanation. The animal that fits the descriptions could be a cougar, but this species of big cat is only native to America. In order to learn the proper techniques for tracking down the puma, he travels to Canada, where he accompanies a team of researchers dedicated to studying the shy, almost invisible predator. Will Bruno be able to use his findings to solve the mystery of the new beast of Gévaudan?

Lost in the Atlantic, the Azores have kept an identity of their own: sea and volcanic mountains, lush vegetation and fields of black lava, a light that changes from one moment to the next. Teresa Salgueiro, the singer of Madredeus, and Pedro Ayres Magalhães, the composer, travel from island to island and find the mixed origins of their music, traces of an imaginary Portugal: traditions that have vanished on the mainland live on here. A landscape, the words of an old man, a village feast call up their songs. Teresa’s voice, with a single guitar, rises on the shore of a still lake. “Madredeus is an isolated case,” says Pedro, “a little like the Azores, lost in the ocean.”

That smelly, pale yellow liquid that people flush down the toilet every day is an industrial fertilizer, a diagnostic tool, a medicine, a renewable energy resource; it is an inexhaustible substance that is produced daily in huge quantities. This is the golden story of urine.

More and more doctors and surgeons are using hypnosis as a supplement to anesthesia during surgery. Hypnosis is also gaining increasing recognition among conventional physicians, especially for anesthesia and pain treatment. Can it also help with psychological stress disorders such as trauma, phobias, addiction, depression or burnout?

Long massacred by whaling ships, sperm whales were almost driven to extinction. Saved when whale hunting ceased in the 1980s, the largest predators on the planet had, until then, always been studied from the surface, allowing their life beneath the seas to remain a mystery. For the first time, a team of scientific divers has literally become immersed in the day to day life of a clan.

Who knows about springtails? And among those for whom this name rings a bell, how many have already seen them? Yet, these small animals, similar to insects, are present in all terrestrial ecosystems. Springtails are undisputed soil regulators. Scientists recognize them today as absolutely essential, especially in the search for pollutants, disruptors, and all the variations that affect our soils, but this little animal is almost unknown. Thanks to extremely precise cameras, as close as possible to these microscopic animals, a teeming life is revealed before our eyes. According to the seasons, the film invites us to get into the intimacy of the springtails, to discover their morphology, their role and their usefulness in the ecosystems of the planet while rubbing shoulders with other organisms in the same environments.

Like the Earth, the human body is a planet teeming with wild life in the midst of fascinating landscapes. For the first time, a microscopic film safari traces these different life forms in and on the human body. These organisms thrive and compete, feed and reproduce, develop and die. In the course of the journey, it becomes clear that some of these organisms are useful and even vital for humans, while others are harmful. Nevertheless, they are all part of a sophisticated ecosystem that has developed over the course of evolution. The number of bacteria that the human body harbors is greater than the number of cells that make it up. Every human being is therefore in constant interaction with countless microorganisms.

Lice, bedbugs, fleas, mites, mosquitoes, ticks, crab lice, which we believed for a moment we had gotten rid of, once again proliferate. Bedbugs invade city centers, lice are doing most well, the Tiger mosquito is on the way to Germany, ticks abound. Why are they back? How can we eliminate rapidly these very unwanted guests? Scientists point the finger at global warming, our too well insulated homes, our lifestyle changes, but also the genetic mutations of these invaders. If some parasites cause minor afflictions, others are vectors of very disabling diseases such as Lyme disease. Embark on a scientific investigation to understand the unexpected return of these bloodsuckers and the potential risks to our health.

With humor and scientific rigor, this documentary lifts the veil on this eternal taboo and takes us all over the world to discover what the future holds for our toilets.

Born of numerous solitary wanderings through autumnal forests, Alexandre Deschaumes, landscape photographer, has developed his own universe. Guided by the dreamlike and enchanted atmospheres of wild and open nature, he attempts to transform his emotions into a certain form of evocative beauty. While preparing a new expedition to Patagonia, Alexandre must face the torments of nature in his quest for the ethereal image.