Much anticipated, the saga "Fortune of France" is premiering this autumn on France 2, both in prime time and on replay. Thanks to director Christopher Thomson and producer Jean Cottin, this series has taken root in the very places in Périgord that inspired writer Robert Merle. The moving and chivalric tale of a noble family struggling to survive in a world torn between Catholics and Protestants provides the material for a grand cinematic epic, addressing some of today’s most pressing issues.

They were beautiful, dazzling, almost familiar and yet impossible to pinpoint in time. “The Tassili frescoes”, as they were named during the last century, are, as we now know, the works of the first livestock and arable farmers in the central Sahara.

The works of three brothers at heart – painter/writer François Augiéras, the poet Paul Placet and artist/photographer Philippe Pons – are being shown together, as an inextricable “whole”, at the Pôle international de la Préhistoire, until January 5th. An invitation to share heartfelt sensations and emotions before the scenic beauty of the Vézère Valley, all the way up to Sarlat, as the seasons go by. These poem-images express “ecstatic and shamanistic sentiments and visions in the places we travelled through”, whispered Philippe Pons into the ears of the friendly crowd following him round the exhibition with Paul Placet, amidst all the creations they had put together. There was a feeling of appeasement. Time stood still as we stood bathing in the perpetual sunshine of the angels’ corridor, designed by architect Raphaël Voinchet.

After its highly successful, twice-repeated preview at the Pôle International de la Préhistoire, after its nationwide release thanks to Sciences et Avenir magazine in their issue devoted to the cradles of civilization, after being selected for the Amiens Archaeology Film Festival and winning the Special Jury Award at the Pech Merle “Objectif Préhistoire” Festival, the film that was shot on a farm and in a cave in the Périgord Noir, LE DERNIER PAYSAN PREHISTORIEN (The Last Farmer-cum-Prehistorian) by Sophie Cattoire, has now received the Best Creative Research Award at the ICRONOS Festival in Bordeaux and, with the film in high demand up and down the country, Gilbert Pémendrant, the hero, has been having the time of his life!

How can we keep forever those sweet, precious moments? The latest showings of the film:
LE DERNIER PAYSAN PREHISTORIEN (The Last Farmer-cum-Prehistorian) in cinemas and festivals up and down the country have opened up a whole new world. The film is fast becoming cult, with the audiences snuggling into the safe, warm cocoon of farm life and prehistory, in total harmony with the endearing main character. On the path of light in the darkness of les salles obscures (cinemas), Gilbert Pémendrant shepherds his proud, virtual livestock (mammoths, aurochs and ibex) across the silver screen.

Today’s pictures are the archives of tomorrow. So why not leave behind us traces we can be proud of? This was clearly the motivation for many of the makers of the films and documentaries shown at the International Festival of Audiovisual Programs (FIPA) in Biarritz this year. They had the courage to say what they had to say and a moral obligation to spread hope.