The Bear
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud, production design: Toni Lüdi, art director: Heidi Lüdi

This film was shot from 13 May to end October 1987. Apart from the final shots, the whole project was filmed in the Italian and Austrian Dolomites. A few scenes were shot in a Belgian zoo in 1988. The production budget was approximately 37 million DM.

The film is set in 1876 British Columbia and is about the moving story of a bear.

Now you could ask:what use is a production designer in a film which is set entirely in the wilds of nature? Natural landscapes do nevertheless present a great challenge to the production designer. Just like a painters of the romantic period, he has to try to "dramatise" by creating a "happy" valley using flowers in bloom, or a dangerous, terrifying wood using the trunks of dead trees or open roots or bizarre rock formations. Nothing is more diverse than nature and nothing is more difficult to imitate.