Based on Isabella Tree’s best-selling book by the same title, Wilding tells the story of a young couple that bets on nature for the future of their failing, four-hundred-year-old estate. The young couple battles entrenched tradition, and dares to place the fate of their farm in the hands of nature. Ripping down the fences, they set the land back to the wild and entrust its recovery to a motley mix of animals both tame and wild. It is the beginning of a grand experiment that will become one of the most significant rewilding experiments in Europe.

The Garden Cinema View:

Wilding showcases the history of Knepp Estate’s rewilding project, and aims to (gently) bring our attention to the ongoing biodiversity and ecosystem catastrophe brought about by land management and agroeconomics, in the UK and Europe. Further unpacking of the science behind the philosophy would have been interesting, but this a high gloss documentary which, some oddly placed reconstructions aside, delivers its message and promotes its subject with efficient clarity – and adorable animals.