Wilding

I think the film invites to dream about a different reality.

It doesn't provide the viewers with a complete study on how to shift from commercial farming to permaculture, but, what it gives us is a glimpse of the possibilities that lie beneath this practice and the unlimited wisdom that the earth carry with it.

The visuals are beyond beautiful, the directing work, the sound design and music are meticulously crafted .

I'm very happy that I got to discover this film in Phoenix Cinema in Leicester and it feels like there is a movement of collective consciousness happening right now that bring back the long lost harmony to our current broken system.

Wilding is one of the best ecology books of this century, and this movie does a good job of Hollywooding it up, while still presenting the basic ecological message. The book goes much deeper, and no one who read it would suggest, as some reviewers have, that Knepp is an impractical vanity project. This is a taste of how everyone is going to have to do it, when intensive agriculture has stripped the last fertility from the soil.

I wish they had spent more time the on gritty details of ecology, like the value of thorny scrub as a tree nursery, and less time on recreations of the goofy antics of animals. This movie was not going to be a blockbuster, and it could have targeted a smarter audience. Where the movie is better than the book is in the time-lapse shots of the land changing, and shots of how happy the animals are, to finally be in a land that fits them.

This film is beyond beautiful and I found it far more moving than I could ever have imagined. Seeing nature developing like that - especially the animals growing into their natural selves - was just gorgeous.

I watched the film with a people from both our local Environmental group and Climate Action group and we were all deeply moved by the way animals help nature to heal itself. At the end we had questions around how the estate supports itself - camping there isn't expensive and nor are the wildlife tours they do, so hardly enough to support such a huge estate and country house (complete with battlements!)

I felt that it could have gone into so much more depth around how healing the land benefits farming, how they manage the land and the animals, how they make enough money to support the estate. They talk briefly about the need for it to support itself but never any more than that.

And they talk about how challenging it was to tread a path that caused so much strong reaction and hint at the end that this is changing or has changed, but don't develop that theme either.

So I really, really loved the film and would have given it 10 out of 10 for sheer beauty and inspiration, but felt that it could have developed quite a few of the themes to make it more informative rather than just inspirational.

Based on the best selling book by Isabella Tree, who also acts as this features main talking head, British documentary Wilding is a mostly unremarkable exploration of a remarkable work of nature as director David Allen for his debut feature examines the rewilding project of the Knepp Wildland in West Sussex.

An estate that is owned by Tree and her partner, the Kneep Wildland project is an entirely fresh way of looking to farm and sustain land outside of the stereotypical fashion that modern science and agribusiness has set in place with an idea to instead let the natural environment and animal species create their own ecosystems from the ground up as man takes a massive backwards step from the whole scenario.

It's a controversial approach and one that bought Tree and her team much vitriol and hatred early on in their journey but after decades of sustained practice and a commitment to the cause, the benefits of what their approach can gain is there for all too see, especially with Allen's keen eye.

When we say that Wilding is unremarkable as a film it can't be a statement that reads true when one talks about the visual elements of Allen's film that are beautiful and unique in equal measure.

Whether its pigs exploring local watering holes for fresh food or deer roaming the estate, Wilding has numerous moments of breath-taking beauty and while the films flashbacks and more staged elements don't real as natural as the modern day segments, even they have their moments, a scene involving 1000's of butterflies descending on the property is gorgeously staged.

For anyone seeking out a documentary that connects the viewer directly too nature the way in which is intended to be found Wilding will be a major winner and while it may struggle to find a broad and wide-ranging audience, this is a well-intentioned visual exploration of a true life underdog story.

Final Say -

A visually outstanding British documentary that never soars to great heights otherwise, Wilding is a workmanlike feature that never outstays its welcome but never becomes a must-see at the same time.

3 busy beavers out of 5.

I attended the world premiere of this documentary in a small but packed cinema during the 2023 London Film Festival. It tells of the efforts of Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree to 'rewild' the former's family farm after many years of intensive agriculture have left the land exhausted.

Townie lovers of nature will find much to enjoy here: not only the amusing antics of horses and pigs (the re-enacted escapade of the porkers in a refreshment marquee could have been written by James Herriot); but insects, flowers and tree roots are all amply featured. The camera work is spectacular (what ever did we do before drones?), even if some of the sequences are obviously staged (eg, a harvest mouse running through a drain pipe) or use CGI.

But it is what is left out that makes this less a documentary than an unquestioning filmed hymn to Burrell and Tree. Basic information is not given: for instance, how extensive is the rewilding experiment - does it cover all of the farm, or just a small part of it? (And if all the farm is involved, how profitable is it?) Also, in her narration Tree makes a quick reference to the farm's animals being 'managed' - but 'managed' how? In many institutions involving animals, 'managing' them is done with a gun - if that is the case here, why not say so and explain why it is necessary? And what is the purpose to the farm of the camera-friendly animals we see - are they merely decoration, pets, or are they eventually sent for slaughter?

Also missing is hardly any expression of differing points of view - essential for creating a balanced piece of non-fiction work. A brief sequence of neighbouring farmers having doubts about the Burrell/Tree experiment sees them dismissed as old-fashioned meanies; their concerns about ragwort - apparently an extremely damaging plant which Burrell and Tree have growing in abundance - are never addressed. And if all the UK were turned over to rewilding, how would that affect our ability to feed a population fast heading toward 70million?

So, for all the spectacular camera work, this is pretty much a propaganda piece only. The missed opportunity to counter alternative points of view - leaving the viewer with the impression Burrell, Tree and the film-makers do not have the courage of their convictions, which I admit may be doing them a dis-service - weakens their own argument.