A white stork with a red beak and legs stands in a field during wild weather. The background is blurred, showing green and brown hues.
A rural landscape unfolds with a dramatic, dark storm cloud looming over vibrant green fields and trees. The wild weather paints the sky in a mix of dark gray and lighter shades, heralding an impending storm.
Two owls with wide eyes rest close together on a forest floor filled with leaves. The background, despite the aftermath of a wild weather storm, remains lush with vibrant green trees, creating a serene woodland atmosphere that highlights the resilience of wildlife.

The Storm – Wildlife in Wild Weather

Nature & Wildlife·1 x 50 min·Completed

Experience nature’s fiercest storms as animals battle thunder, lightning, and torrents. Witness their extraordinary survival strategies in the wild.

Factsheet
Genre
Nature & Wildlife
Duration
1 × 50 min
Definition
4K
Audio
5.1
Status
Completed
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Synopsis

Every year sees heavy summer storms with thunder and lightning, hail and torrential rain raging over the country. The film shows the extraordinary strategies adopted by animals, from the tiniest insects to foxes and moles, to cope with the threat. A nature documentary, which sheds a very new light on the animal and plant world – when the situation gets desperate.

It begins – literally – with a thunderclap. Crashing and flashing, a violent cloudburst descends on the highland landscape. This is no normal summer storm but a violent tempest that rips branches from trees and swells streams to overflowing. No human being would choose to leave home in this. Animals, though, are at the mercy of the storm – many of them completely defenceless. Deer seek refuge in the forest. Two eagle owl chicks have no protection; they press themselves close together. Without a roof over their heads, they’re getting wetter and wetter and make a pitiful sight. Will they survive the storm?

When lightning flashes and thunder roars most animals are very directly exposed to the elements. The film shows their strategies for surviving thunderstorms and downpours unscathed. Some species are highly weather-sensitive. They sense when a storm is brewing and take shelter. Other species actually benefit from storms breaking out – from newly formed bodies of water or unexpected feasts. But basically all creatures have to have their wits about them, when stormy weather approaches like a monstrous beast of prey. One wrong move can be their last.

While most nature films show animals only in the best of weather, in warm morning or evening light, here we’re dealing with desperate conditions. Many chicks and young animals don’t survive their first months. A sudden break in the weather can wipe out a whole brood. We seldom think about the forces that can be unleashed by the elements – especially when we’re cocooned at home, safe from the raging weather outside.

This film takes viewers literally into the eye of the storm. The oppressive heat before the bad weather breaks, the distant rumbling of thunder, the perilous flashes of lightning and the vehemence of the rain – never before has a storm and the behaviour of very different species at its mercy been rendered so palpable as in this documentary. Rarely has the struggle of animals against the elements been captured so intimately. A wildlife documentary with the stylistic devices of a disaster thriller.

Team

Written and directed by Robin Jähne and Michael R. Gärtner
Executive producers Birgit Peters, Sabine Holzer
Production companies A co-production of Terra Mater Studios, WDR and Längengrad Filmproduktion

Awards & Recognitions

Prague, Czech Republic PSFF - Prague Science Film Fest Winner (Category: International Competition) 2024
Los Angeles, USA US International Awards Silver Award (Category: Documentaries & Reports - Nature & Wildlife) 2024
Eckernförde, Germany Green Screen - Internationales Naturfilmfestival Eckernförde Winner (Category: sh:z Audience Award) 2024
Lihula, Estonia MAFF - Matsalu Nature Film Festival Official Selection 2024
Graz, Austria Mountainfilm International Filmfestival Graz Official Selection 2024
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