“The song of the forests”, an ode to nature and transmission by Vincent Munier

After the adaptation of Sylvain Tesson’s novel “The Snow Panther” (2021), awarded the César for best documentary, Vincent Munier offers a dive into the heart of the Vosges forests. It was here that he learned everything thanks to his father Michel, a naturalist, who spent his life lying in wait in the woods, reading the footprints of animals, knowing the places where they eat, hunt, build their nests and sleep.

The film “The Song of the Forest” is an invitation to discover nature, but it is also a story of transmission. It is time for Vincent Munier and his father Michel to pass on this knowledge to Simon, Vincent’s son. Together, grandfather, father and son set out to discover the diversity and breathtaking beauty of nature.

A young French-speaking talent

“The Song of the Forests” is marked by the participation, as cinematographer, of a young talent from French-speaking Switzerland. At only 22 years old, Antoine Lavorel is a videographer and nature photographer whose destiny seems clear-cut. Son of biologists and naturalists, he explored all facets of photography at the Vevey School of Applied Arts before devoting himself to wildlife. He is part of this new generation who shares his passion on social networks, but it is in the cinema that he takes a new step by collaborating with Vincent Munier.

The story of their meeting is worthy of a tale: Antoine Lavorel, who went cycling in the Vosges, wrote to Vincent Munier to meet him. Against all odds, the director accepts. This is the start of a fruitful collaboration. Antoine Lavorel completed several internships with the director, contributing to the images for the film “Le chant des forêt”.

A work of patience and field

Like Vincent Munier, Antoine Lavorel experienced his first emotion in the forest thanks to the deer. “In front of my house, there is a wood where I met deer, I regularly went to see them and it was absolutely magical. And perhaps also the first badger hides. It’s great! We land at the foot of a tree, we disappear and all of a sudden, there is this colorful truffle that appears. It marks you for life”, recounts the Romand in the 12h45 of December 16.

I like to show off the nature we have on our doorstep. Nature isn’t the big news stories on the other side of the world, but that’s what’s happening here too.

The nature photographer acquired his knowledge thanks to his parents and by working with other enthusiasts, but also and above all by spending days and nights immersed in nature. “I believe that the best way to learn about animals is to be in the field all the time. And that’s good, because that’s what I love doing,” says Antoine Lavorel

Showing beauty also means talking about what is disappearing, what absolutely must be protected.

Show what disappears

The film also addresses the issue of global warming. “I believe that this is also why Vincent Munier, who was more of a photographer before, came to cinema. Through cinema and through animated images, through video, we are more able to convey these messages. We can tell stories, take people with us and show them directly,” emphasizes Antoine Lavorel.

Comments collected by Julie Evard

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“The Song of the Forests” by Vincent Munier. To be seen in French-speaking cinemas since December 17, 2025.