The Beautiful Opportunist

Through superb images, the peregrinations over the seasons of a clan of red foxes from the Italian massif of Gran Paradiso. This immersion in their intimacy reveals the extraordinary adaptation of this species to highlands and the specificities of its social organization.

Lying on a spring soil of the Gran Paradiso massif, Boque, injured and exhausted, will die. It's the end of a busy life as an ibex, punctuated by tightrope walks along the vertiginous cliffs of the Italian Alps, dodging against lurking predators, and tough duels against his fellow creatures. From his birth, Boque will have survived many dangers hidden in the shadow of the massif: the golden eagle, the fox or the wolf, but also the snow squalls which cover the landscape with a white coat, making all food inaccessible. As he grew up, Boque asserted himself as an ibex respected by his congeners, until he became, like his father before him, the dominant of the herd.

The marmot is a beloved and iconic animal of the Alps, known for its chubby figure and entertaining demeanor. In the film, we follow the life of Mox, a young male who emerges from his burrow at 6500 feet altitude for the first time after four weeks of being born. He has a limited window of time to build up enough fat reserves to survive his six-month hibernation underground. During this period, Mox engages in playful activities with his peers, mutual grooming, and feasts on succulent plants. He also learns to identify the scent of each colony member, the peaceful presence of chamois and ibex, and the dangers that lurk above. When Mox wakes up the following year from hibernation, he is exhausted, emaciated, and vulnerable to predators such as eagles, foxes, and wolves that still roam the snow and avalanche-covered slopes.

With its carnival face, its devilish eye and its giant wingspan, the bearded vulture had everything to become a legend. This bone-breaking vulture, exterminated in the Alps at the beginning of the twentieth century, flies over our mountains again. But his return is no coincidence. Two biologists, one French, the other Swiss, tell us about the mores and the fabulous history of this extraordinary raptor. The Bearded Vulture federates the largest program for the protection and conservation of a bird in Europe. But in the fragile balance of nature nothing is ever gained. What threats still hang over this vulture? A human challenge at the heart of the animal world which shows that, when he wants, man is capable of changing things.

Throughout the year, we will follow a creature that lives near us and is part of many fairy tales... Not so long ago, the most widespread beast in the world was the wolf. But today the red fox took first place. And it didn't happen by accident. Evolution has equipped her with remarkable abilities and excellent senses. The fox can adapt to human society and changes in the natural environment. Even the extreme conditions of the mountains in winter. But the life of a fox is not easy even in other seasons.

Colin is 9 years old and he is a little city dweller like the others. However, the activity of his grandparents, animal filmmakers, intrigues him. On his days off, he goes up to see them in the heart of Gran Paradiso National Park. It is then another school that awaits him. Colin learns to be discreet, to recognize tracks, to walk with crampons, to bivouac at altitude. A beautiful family bond is formed. But an animal is missing. To see it, the young boy puts his grandfather to the test.

A mountain landscape, and in the distance, a tiny dot with two gigantic horns. This is the realm of the Alpine Ibex. Our film tells the life story of Buck, a single dominant male. The film opens with his dying moments in Italy’s Gran Paradiso National Park, in the shadow of the same summit that witnessed his birth. In the flashbacks that follow, we relive the most important moments of his life.