Forêt ivre – Films – Visions du Réel

Forest High

Manon Coubia
Belgium, France | 2026 | 102 min
Swiss Premiere
Language : French
Subtitles : English

A mountain refuge. Three women take turns welcoming hikers and maintaining the place. In this remote corner of the world, the passage of time is paradoxical: It seems to have stopped, yet the seasons and eras fly by. Here, the encounters are as improbable as they are memorable, with an environmental activist, a soldier and a capercaillie.

Like the high‑mountain refuge it portrays, Forêt ivre is presented to us unadorned, with only the bare essentials. The place seems unchanging, indifferent to the passage of time. Yet, as the seasons pass, the years seem to accelerate with the succession of three caretakers of different ages. The simplicity of this direct-style portrait of a place is enriched by the anecdotes collected by the filmmaker over a ten-year period, during which she inhabited the roles of its female characters and cared for this waystation as much as for its visitors. Hikers, environmental activists and guides all stay in the heart of this northern Alpine landscape. In this unique setting, which gradually empties out until the closing two-hander, we learn – without ever seeing – that the wildlife is changing and becoming scarce. Serving as a refuge for the lost – like a silent soldier withdrawing from the tumult of humanity, or a capercaillie once thought to have vanished – this antechamber of the modern world assumes the trappings of a fairy tale.

Raphaëlle Pireyre

Forêt ivre, 2026
Pleine nuit, 2023
Marée, 2019
Les enfants partent à l’aube, 2017
L’Immense retour, 2016
Bleu cerise, 2011
Sonate blanche, 2007