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Les perles de la Vologne

About - Les perles de la Vologne

A film by Hippolyte Burkhart-Uhlen

The Vologne Valley could have gone down in history as the pearl fishermen’s valley. Until the end of the 19th century, millions of pearl mussels populated the pure waters of this river in the Vosges. The pearls that this freshwater mussel produces were fished in large numbers for centuries to set jewelry, until they were overexploited. Then the industrialization of the valley and the toxic discharges from paper mills and textile factories polluted the rivers and led to the near extinction of the pearl mussel. A century later, it is the ruins of these factories that constitute the backdrop to the valley where people are beginning to dream of a greener future, and where the pearl mussel has not yet been completely forgotten.