by Julian Wood
Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Isabella Tree, Rhiannon Neads, Matthew Collyer
Intro:
... only making one point, which ... we know already. Still, nature is wonderful.
Nature knows best. The idea that large scale agricultural farming requires lots of machinery and fertilizer (to say nothing of subsidies) is reasonably well-known, if not often thought about. What would be the alternative anyway, given a growing number of mouths to feed? Of course, there are small scale moves towards more sustainable and organic farming, but that trend faces market forces and consumer reluctance. What about just not really farming, as such, at all? That is one avenue pursued in this quirky British documentary. It is based on the book by the perfectly-named Isabella Tree and the whole thing is as British as a pork pie or perhaps an English oak tree.
Isabella and Charlie belong to the landed classes and come from a long line of posh farming folk. They live in a sort of castle (Knepp Castle) in Sussex between London and the south coast of England. Given that they weren’t making much actual profit from persisting with the old ways, they decide to take the radical step of re-wilding their estate. Somewhat reluctantly, they sell off their farm equipment and make plans to help nature reclaim the ecosystem. This involves actively intervening in a radically opposite direction. They introduce long-abandoned species; sturdy ponies, highland-looking cattle and semi-wild pigs. All these critters do their crittterly thing in ways which actually provides ecological niches for other species. Once the dung beetles and insects get going, and previously crowded-out trees sprout, the landscape does indeed transform. The surrounding farmers, by the way, were unimpressed (weeds spread of course) but the one meeting where we see them pouring scorn on the idea is very brief and not followed up on.
Instead, we have Isabella and Charlie’s views (interestingly ‘played’ by actors Rhiannon Neads and Matthew Collyer, although with a cameo by the author herself) of how wonderful it all is. If you swallow the initial premise and can get over the sort of land-owning privilege that enables them to do it in the first place, the main message of the film is, in an overall sense, convincing. Through time lapse sequences and lots of nice close-up nature photography, we see the beauty and intricacy of nature as it takes hold. A lot of this is counterintuitive but instructive. Take rivers for example. Man’s intervention has made rivers conveniently straight, but they were ‘designed’ to meander. Once the couple get a licence to import beavers (which takes years of wrangling), a couple of the flap-tailed engineers do in a few seasons what technology would take years to achieve. You do come away with a renewed admiration for the busy little beavers.
The film is only making one point, which, as noted, we know already. Still, nature is wonderful.
