Antarctica, a legacy mission 

Jeanne Lefevre, 34, is a filmmaker. While clearing out her grandparents’ house, she discovers an old handwritten notebook — her grandfather’s logbook from a 1960 expedition to Adélie Land. A scientist and nuclear engineer, Bruno Parlier never spoke of this journey to his family.

With his archives in hand, Jeanne decides to follow in his footsteps to Antarctica.

For her, this journey is a way of forging a new connection with her late grandfather, of understanding the silence that surrounded his expedition by uncovering what he experienced there. But it is also driven by a deeper curiosity: a desire to encounter, explore and share this land shaped by science.

Aboard the Astrolabe, the ship linking Hobart, Tasmania, to Adélie Land, Jeanne travels to the Dumont d’Urville research station, crossing the Southern Ocean and passing through the breathtaking landscapes of sea ice and glaciers. Following in Bruno Parlier’s footsteps, she sets out to meet those who have succeeded him in the far south of the globe. Armed with her watercolour sketchbook, Jeanne documents her journey in the first person, crafting a sincere and sensitive portrait of this inhospitable territory.

In the space of two generations, the stakes in this land of science have radically changed. Where nuclear power once dominated research and imagination in 1960, today it is climate change that concerns and mobilises scientists across the Antarctic continent. Vital data is collected here, helping us to understand and anticipate the major upheavals to come.

In a land that defies description, shaped by the legends of early explorers and pioneers - where everyone seeks to leave their mark - Jeanne’s mission is now to share the lives and work of those who inhabit it with as wide an audience as possible.