Heart of an Oak

An oak tree in the Sologne region of France, two hundred and ten years old and seventeen metres high. The film follows what happens around this tree over the course of a year: squirrels, jays, ants, field mice, birds and the weevils that lay their eggs inside acorns. The tree houses all of them, feeds them and shelters them from its roots to its crown. The film was directed by Laurent Charbonnier and Michel Seydoux together; Charbonnier comes from wildlife filming and Seydoux from producing fiction. There is no narrator in the film, no voiceover, no explanation. There is only image and sound; the sound design is so close that a weevil's step on a branch can be heard. Eighty-one minutes. The documentary presents nature not as a lesson but as something to be watched, and leaves the judgement to the viewer.