summary
In Borneo, at the edge of the tropical forest, Kéria is given a baby orangutan that has been rescued from the oil palm plantation where her father works. At the same time, her young cousin Selai has come to live with them, seeking refuge from the conflict between his indigenous tribe and the logging companies. Together, Kéria, Selai and the little ape Oshi will battle the destruction of their ancestral forest home, now under greater threat than ever. But for Kéria, the fight will also allow her to discover the truth of her own origins and learn to appreciate the wisdom of the indigenous people.
about the author
Born in 1973 in Sierre, Switzerland. He studied illustration and computer graphics at Émile Cohl School in Lyon and 3D infographics in Lausanne. He graduated in anthropology and digital images from the Lumiere University in Lyon and today works as a freelance illustrator in Geneva. His feature film, My Life as a Courgette (2016), was presented at the Cannes Film Festival and won many international awards, and was also distributed in Slovenia.
director's statement
“I grew up in the Swiss Alps, but my grandparents were farmers, with a lot of animals and a strong connection to nature, living in a very simple way. My parents were farmers, too, but they embraced modernity. In the 1980s, they started using a lot of fertilizers, a lot of pesticides on their vineyards, because they were growing monocultured grapes. I was a kid at that time, and I saw how all the animals, all the plants, all that diversity, just disappeared from our vineyard. It was a real subject of conflict between me and my parents.”
- Claude Barras