Les Films du Nord

Yuku is a young mouse who lives with her family in the cellar of a castle. Her grandmother passes on the family values by telling her timeless folk tales. Injured in a tussle with a cat, the old mouse is bedridden and she tells her children that she will have to leave them to follow the little blind mole into the Earth’s tunnels. In one of her grandmother’s storybooks, Yuku learns that the flower of the Himalayas can bring her eternal light. She leaves on a journey of discovery to find the flower.

Thirty six thousand years ago, in the Ardèche river gorge, when an animal was painted, it was hunted. When it is again time to go hunting and painting, Gwel is appointed head of the group of hunters while Karou the painter and his apprentice Lani set off to paint the walls of the great cavern. But they hadn't counted on meeting a cave lion.

Eliette, an eight-year-old girl, lives in a country where the king banned music. A troubadour from the Orient gets his instruments confiscated there. But he is not inclined to servitude and meets Eliette who secretly carved a flute in a wild reed. Eliette and the troubadour bond of friendship. Together they will lead the people to free themselves from tyranny.

Alfonso, a young squirrel, always has his head in the clouds. He loves watching them and sometimes takes snapshots of them. But cloud-gazing is not always easy. Sometimes, he even has to be really brave.

A rabbit and a squirrel, neighbours and good friends, both love food and good company. They nevertheless quarrel over their different tastes. The squirrel moves out during the night and is caught by a fox…

The history of barbed wire, whose use dates back to the first settlers of the Wild West, always driven by their reckless and ruthless spirit of conquest and selfish ambition to leave their mark on wild lands; of its relationship with politics and mercantilism; of the perversion of the millenary relationship between men and animals; of the evolution of surveillance techniques. Fences and borders: the tragic tale of the enclosure of the world.

The Big Bad Wolf is back, and firmly intends to resume his usual behaviour. He is disillusioned when he comes upon Little Red Riding Hood, on her way to her Grandmother's, with a tray of cakes. "Things change, you know!", she exclaims. This is indeed what he finds out when he meets Grandma and the gamekeeper.

In the depth of winter, two rabbits discover that their store of carrots jam is empty. But nobody has ever said that carrots can only be found in gardens! Certainly not their uncle Robert who has left them a precious treasure map...

Winter is approaching, and the last day of the red-yellow-brown glow of autumn is a good time for the animals in the forest to organize a very special race. Ardently they construct buggies from discarded materials, and as the weather turns frosty, the race is on for the hare, fox, hedgehog, bear, and others. With mutual caring, the forest animals ride toward the finish line and their wintering grounds.

A little mouse tries to take shelter inside the trunk of an old tree, when it suddenly scolds her in a gruff, menacing voice. The mouse runs away and meets a squirrel, who disbelievingly scampers up to the tree but soon beats a hasty retreat. A rabbit then a chaffinch receive the same treatment, when finally a tortoise comes along who does not let herself be taken in.

A shy young price seeks solace in overeating rather than attempt courtship. Until he begins to suffer from severe stomach pains. A peculiar doctor advises him to drink the waters of a magical spring every day. But it is a thousand leagues from the palace. The prince must go there alone, on foot, otherwise the water will lose its powers to cure him.

Little rabbit's mum has made him a special biscuit in the shape of a rabbit. But the biscuit notices the way little rabbit and his friends are eyeing him greedily so he jumps down and runs into the forest. Will the rabbit biscuit outwit the fox prowling in the forest?

Zibilla, a young zebra adopted by a couple of horses, is the laughing stock of her new schoolmates. She ends up hating her stripes. When she has her stuffed toy stolen, she takes off without a second thought to look for it and that is where her adventures begin...

A man in a boat is fishing peacefully with his cat. Rod in hand, he waits patiently for a catch. He tosses the first fish he catches to his cat, who has been watching him hungrily and pleadingly. He lands an increasing number of catches, each more surprising than the last. But they are immediately snatched up, escaping the poor man's grasp according to a surreal and endless pattern of events...

An excellent example of how sometimes dialogue is not necessary, Totems is a visual display of our inner animal disposition. A lumberjack is working in a forest when a tree falls down and his leg gets stuck. As he is trapped in a beautiful but cruel environment, the despair awakens his primal instincts.

A fisherman and his wife live together happily in their humble dwelling. One day, the man finds a tortoise with a golden shell caught in his nets. The tortoise promises the fisherman that all his wishes will come true if he lets her go free. This touching version of a traditional tale illustrates how greed often gets the better of men and women.