Tonight on Netflix: The director of The Name of the Rose captures animals like no other, and every image in this film proves it

1969. Chen Zhen, a young student from Beijing, is sent to Inner Mongolia to educate a tribe of nomadic herders. But Chen really has a lot to learn – about life in this endless, hostile and dizzying land, about the concept of community, freedom and responsibility, and about the most feared and revered creature of the steppes – the wolf.

Seduced by the complex and almost mystical bond between these sacred beings and the shepherds, she captures a wolf cub to tame it. But the growing relationship between man and animal—as well as the tribe’s traditional way of life and the future of the land itself—is threatened when a regional representative of the central government decides to go all out to eradicate wolves from the region.

After the overwhelming triumph of his film The Bear, the biggest success of his career with more than 9.1 million viewers in France, we know that Jean-Jacques Annaud takes animals like no other. He would prove it again in 2004 with the excellent Two Brothers and its 3.33 million admissions.

In 2015, he made a brilliant film: The Last Wolf. A 2004 adaptation of Wolf Totem by Chinese writer Jiang Rong has sold more than 20 million copies. The book, which has been problematic for the Beijing authorities, faces a conundrum: it is difficult to censor such a popular work, while at the same time being highly critical of the country’s environmental policies.

Unusually, it was the Beijing authorities who came directly to find the film’s director. “We would very much like to receive you in our place to convey what we are not allowed to say.” They even deposed the country’s minister of culture.

Anne thus had complete freedom to sign carte blanche to this absolutely glorious initiatory story; A very poignant historical and spiritual mural, shot in luxurious landscapes. Anno is a great storyteller and every picture in this movie proves it. A perfect show for the whole family.