
Wilding Film Screening
Friday 6th June 2025
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.
We are partnering with Gateway Film Festival to bring this film to Peterborough.
This is a British Board of Film Classification (BBFC): PG
Long Synopsis
Based on Isabella Tree’s best-selling book by the same title, Wilding tells the story of a young couple, Isabella and Charlie Tree, who in the 1980s inherit Knepp, a failing, four-hundred year-old estate. By the end of the 1990s, facts must be faced: the farm isn’t working, and they are £1.5m in debt. The land is dying, the soil reduced to sterile dirt, with plummeting biodiversity levels. Battling entrenched tradition, the couple dares to place the fate of their farm in the hands of nature, with an ambitious rewilding project inspired by the thinking of European ecologists like Frans Vera. Ripping down the fences, and hoping to renew the growth of mycorrhizal fungi deep in the soil, 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. Over time, the soil replenishes itself – with a little help from some charming pigs – and the miraculous return of rare species like the purple emperor butterfly, white stork and turtle doves, who make their homes at Knepp. It is a transformation far in excess of anything anyone could have dreamed of, captured in intimate detail by five time Emmy Award-winning documentarian David Allen and multi- BAFTA & Emmy Award winning cinematographers Tim Cragg and Simon de Glanville.
VENUE INFORMATION
Address
Church of the Holy Spirit Bretton.
Rightwell East, Bretton, Peterborough PE3 8DX
There is a car park at the Bretton Centre. The venue is wheelchair accessible.
There is a toilet which is accessible for wheelchair users. All the rooms for the event are on the ground floor.
Any questions regarding the event or venue please email: flourishpeterborough@gmail.com
Previous screening: Friday 28th February
Venue:
St Marks Church Hall
82 Lincoln Road, PETERBOROUGH, Cambridgeshire, PE1 2SN
Speaker Highlight for February
We are so excited to be joined by Luke Payn, Garden Manager from @WestravenCommunityGarden joining us for this event.
Luke has managed the garden project for over five years and initiated significant change and development in the space. He is a passionate environmentalists and artist. This is your opportunity to hear more about the biodiversity on the site and the exciting projects coming up and ask questions.
Westraven community garden is part of Westraven Community Cafe and Garden CIO an independent charity in the city, supported by Cross Keys Homes. Thiese pictures show the beautiful breadth of areas available for visitors to the space both human and non human.



