ARTE Distribution

A thriller-like documentary based on an incredible true story, mixing the Cold War, new weapons, and worldwide geopolitical intrigues. More than 1,000 U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers have been reporting suffering from frightening symptoms known as "The Thing". A unique investigation with exclusive interviews.

December 2016, a few months after the historic re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba, an American diplomat, who had just arrived in Havana, passed out on the floor of his home, suffering from frightening symptoms. He claims to have been targeted by a shrill sound pressing down on his skull, "The Thing". Seven years later, more than 1,000 American diplomats and intelligence officers stationed on every continent reported suffering the same fate that is threatening to paralyze American diplomacy. Cuban attack? Collective psychosis? Russian intelligence operations? This documentary unearths forgotten Cold War practices and redefines the rules of international relations at a time when Vladimir Putin has declared an all-out war on the West.

Dream travels, unusual encounters and exciting stories, this series shows you the world and provides insights into the lives and work of exceptional men and women across the globe. This multiple award-winning series is one of the most ambitious productions of its kind.

From sapphire mines in Madagascar to a small Russian village on the edge of the Arctic Circle that is slowly sinking into the sand… Our teams travel the planet exploring nature, technology and remote civilizations and portray what they discover there through meticulously documented, emotion-packed reports.

A stunning series that takes you along the most beautiful and vast corridor of life in the Rockies. Discover groundbreaking local conservation initiatives designed to preserve the ”iconic four”: bison, grizzly, caribou and wolf.

Yellowstone National Park was created in 1872. It was the first natural park in the world. As we celebrated the 150th anniversary of this park back in 2022, it's to this part of the world that we must once again look to see the unfolding of a revolutionary initiative. As a new concept of nature conservation, the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative preserves the heritage of Yellowstone National Park.
Through the success stories of four emblematic animals (bison, grizzly, woodland caribou, wolf), we follow this immense 2000 mile corridor of life all the way through the four episodes of this series and discover how it is working to preserve the Rocky Mountain ecosystem, in close collaboration with Canadian Indian and First Nations tribes.

Discover Europe in all its diversity of viewpoints

The art market had not yet experienced its digital revolution. Until that day of 2021, when NFTs, short for Non Fungible Token, appeared on your screens. Thanks to this new transaction technology, Beeple, an almost unknown digital artist, became the third most expensive living artist in the world.

NFTs promise to revolutionize the art market. More money for artists, fewer intermediaries, and fewer barriers for collectors. Will this digital revolution be virtuous, or will it meet the same fate as many others before it, emptied of their meaning and twisted from their original goals?

Dive into 5 of the most visited European heritage emblems and their breathtaking, unexpected and diversified wildlife. This ambitious series is an amazing immersion into the heart of incredible ecosystems, with the people who preserve it everyday.

Mont Saint-Michel, the Loire valley châteaux, Alhambra or Bastei Bridge… Every year, these breathtaking sites attract tourists from across the world. But hidden in the meanderings off the beaten track, fascinating and unexpected stories unfold: the stories of the wildlife that inhabits these places.
 
For, although these famous French cultural heritage sites have been built over the centuries, they are located within areas of outstanding natural beauty, with their own iconic species such as the Red deer of Chambord, the Black stork of Pont Bastei or the toads of the Alhambra.
 
Today, the preservation of these exceptional sites can no longer be done without taking into account the wildlife. And after several centuries of ignoring each other, these two worlds are finally coming together to show that natural and historical heritage can become allies! Over the course of four seasons, this prestigious documentary collection revisits the great French heritage sites from the perspective of the wildlife that inhabits them, offering an unusual look at these mythical sites, with fur, feathers or scales.

This 10-part series takes you on an anthropological and cultural journey to ten destinations around the world, to reflect on our globalized consumption patterns. An invitation to travel in the most beautiful way possible to the last bastions of local customs and cultures.

Let us meet the men and women who make these markets a place of commercial and cultural exchange. While the globalized economy leads to a standardization of tastes and consumption, going to a market allows you to dive immediately into a local culture, to meet its inhabitants, its food, its smells, its colors, its customs. An invitation to travel in the most beautiful way possible, to enjoy the abundant and varied riches of nature and meet people from different cultures around the world, who are the beating hearts of these markets. 

By the producers of the internationally acclaimed series The Great Greek Myths, this new series unveils for the first time the true essence of Nordic tales which are based on ancient texts. These Nordic legends gave birth to the most popular culture block busters: Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Marvel’s Thor or George R. R. Martin’s GOT.

The fascination for this mythological world became widespread especially among the youngest, who are sensitive to the many explicit references in popular culture. All these references only draw on these myths, modifying, adapting or transforming them. The original stories have never been faithfully retranscribed with the very soul of these legends and the complexity of their characters. More precisely, it seems that no documentary production has ever attempted to tell these stories as they have come down to us. This documentary series based on ancient texts is therefore unique. It aims to tell the stories in a rigorous way, as a heritage response to the ever-growing interest in this mythological world.

For 2,000 years, Mary, the mother of Jesus, has been the most illustrated woman in the world. And today, at a time when the patriarchal model is being deconstructed, Mary might still have a lot to tell us...
 

What can we learn about our societies by exploring the representations of a young Jewish girl who became the most famous woman in the world? What was she meant to say? By taking a closer look at the thousand faces she has been given by painters and sculptors over the centuries, the story of the place of women is told. And today, at a time when the patriarchal model is being deconstructed, Mary could have a lot to tell us...

Every week, ARTE REPORTS reviews in images the events that made the headlines. Documentaries on important issues around the world, from human rights to the outcomes of elections.

Discover the history of European peasants, from the 6th century to the present day, in a four-part series that travels the European countryside following the traces of its hidden history, which has long remained unwritten.

The European peasants - an extensive people whose history goes back more than a thousand years and is intertwined with that of the continent. Through four films set across Europe, historians, archaeologists and modern-day peasants evoke the singularities of this epic of peasant communities: centuries of oppression and struggles, solidarity and dreams, and the constant stubbornness to remain "peasants" in spite of everything. Beyond the clichés and myths, we discover the peasants’ vision of the world: a "moral economy" based on sustainable and fair resource management.
Today, as we come to grips with the fragility of our urban civilization, these age-old peasant aspirations raise a question that is more relevant than ever: that of land and its use.

From the shoals and seagrass beds of Zanzibar, Tanzania, to the dunes and lagoons of the Wadden Sea, Germany, take a closer look at the unknown and tumultuous lives of shoreline creatures around the globe as they struggle to survive.
 

Braving the Tides takes us between land and sea where the ceaseless ebb and flow of the water shapes mysterious and spellbinding universes. Sandy, rocky, silty or made of coral; cold or temperate; subjected to strong or weak tidal ranges, each shore is a world of its own, populated with unique species.
 
At the heart of these remarkable environments, we will discover the various strategies animals and plants have developed to survive the periods when the sea washes over everything and those when it brutally disappears. Because, twice a day, the dwellers of the shores must adapt to brutal temperature or oxygen changes, stand firm against the waves, currents or the violent gusts of wind.
 
 
To each shore its heroes, and to each hero its strategy to brave the elements. From the rocky tide pools of the Salish Sea, Canada, to the emerging coral plateaus of Kimberley, Australia; from the shoals and seagrass beds of Zanzibar, Tanzania, to the dunes and lagoons of the Wadden Sea, Germany, we will follow the incredible adventures of the animals of the seashores.
 
You’ll never see shorelines the same way again.