THE NATURE OF CHRISTMAS

A cinematic festive gift: Herbert Ostwald’s nature documentary explores the animal (and even botanical) aspects of the Christmas season:

How do reindeer survive the icy winter, and biblical donkeys the heat? Where do Christmas trees come from? And what do geese and robins have to do with it all? Who is responsible for the mistletoe? Everything you’ve always wanted to know about the festival of love. To find the answers, Herbert Ostwald and his team travelled to Lapland, Georgia, Great Britain, Germany and Kenya. Not on a sleigh through the sky, admittedly — though reindeer were still involved.

TEAM:
A film by Herbert Ostwald // Camera: Roland Gockel, Robin Jähne, Philipp Klein, Erik Sick // Editing: Isabelle Albert // Music: Mark Joggerst // Sound: Bastian Barenbrock, Ralf Gromann, Moritz Kerst, Marcel Lepel // Sound Mixing: Florian Ebrecht // Animation: Anastasia Wagner // Colour Grading: Dany Schelby // Sound Editing: Mathis Hohmann // Narrators: Thomas Balou Martin, Yvon Jansen // Production Assistants: Karl Hax, Ali Tamcan // Production Management: Kerstin Conze (WDR), Roman Landauer (TMS), Katja Sträter (Längengrad) // Producers: Thomas Weidenbach, Sarah Zierul // Executive Producers, Terra Mater Studios: Birgit Peters, Sabine Holzer // WDR Commissioning Editor: Klaus Kunde-Neimöth

A Längengrad Filmproduktion production in co-production with WDR and in collaboration with Arte and Terra Mater Studios.