Vancouver Premiere

“Tranquil, tender, and transportive … There’s such intimacy, often poetry, to Brown’s narration that one feels enthralled as much as enlightened by these long strolls through the French countryside.”

Isaac Feldberg, RogerEbert.com

French filmmaker-cum-farmer Pierre Creton ambled largely under the radar before his homoerotic horticulture picture A Prince made him a name of note. His superb documentary follow-up eschews the weirdness and sex, but much remains familiar in this edifying tour of Normandy’s indigenous flora. Our learned and exceedingly likeable guide is the francophone British paleobotanist of the title, whose seven serene walks across the region reveal a world of ancient plant life on the brink of ecological, human-caused collapse. Creton, co-directing with creative and life partner Vincent Barré, devises an ingenious twofold structure: the front half documents Brown’s excursions accompanied by a 16mm-camera crew (including Antoine Pirotte, star of A Prince); the back half presents the analogue footage, an exquisite collection of moving-image still life and a taxonomy of the journey’s unexpectedly emotional discoveries. Botany speak may dominate the conversation, but it’s tenderness, for nature and those united by its wonder, that truly prevails here.

In French with English subtitles

“A collective experiment imbued with a restorative charge, 7 Walks serves as a reminder that the earth is filled with splendour to be enjoyed together and preserved for the future.”

Vicky Wong, TIFF
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