an association becomes an owner in the La Teste forest thanks to the film “The Animal Kingdom”

Reminder of the facts: in 2022, Gironde filmmaker Thomas Cailley chooses to direct his new film, “The Animal Kingdom” in his region of origin. The film team will settle in the forest of La Teste-de-Buch at the beginning of summer 2022 for their shots. Except that the fires which ravage the user forest disrupt the production schedule…

“Right in the middle of filming, everything was destroyed,” says Thomas Cailley. The film was forced to a halt, the crew left, I stayed on site in a rain of ashes to look for alternative locations to finish the film. We still had five weeks of work left, entirely in the forest. » The delay did not prevent the film from being released on time, in the fall of 2023, from enjoying public success by exceeding one million admissions and collecting five Césars…

Two years after this filming, Sepanso Gironde therefore announces that it has just acquired a plot of just over 7 hectares in the used forest of La Teste-de-Buch, thanks to a donation of 14,000 euros from the company. production company North-West Films. “A few days before last Christmas, the Sepanso Gironde secretariat received a call from Nord-Ouest Films expressing its intention to contribute, through a donation, to the protection of nature in the filming region of ”Règne animal”. By a happy coincidence, this announcement came at a time when the association’s forestry commission was considering ways to acquire forest plots to exercise gentle management,” indicates Sepanso, which signed the deed of purchase of the plot. on June 24.

“Right in the middle of filming, everything was destroyed. The film was forced to a halt, I stayed on site in a rain of ashes to look for alternative locations”