Once Upon a Time: Life

It is five thousand million years ago. We approach the globe of the earth through thick clouds. Volcanic eruptions, rivers of lava, lightning, earthquakes and diluvial rains make up an apocalyptic outlook. Then the scene becomes more peaceful. Sunrays shine through the fog and gently touch the surface of the water. We follow this ray, shining through the water. Everything is quiet. At last something stirs! A living cell! It has taken more than a thousand million years for this unique cell to come into existence. Life starts to develop slowly. Millions of years pass by while these micro-organisms evolve and are transformed. Finally, the Homo-Erectus appears…

Peter, a robust Pithecanthropus male, marches along and, as we move on in the time bar, his morphology changes and passes through all the stages which take him from Homo-Erectus to Homo-Sapiens. He is now the Neanderthal type. Following him, we see a migrating group which includes some twenty individuals: men, women and children. They arrive in a valley well-stocked with game. Peter gives the sign: here they will set up their camp. The children go to the nearby river to fish and have considerable success when the old man with them gives them advice. Soon, the first tools are developed, and above that, fire is discovered…

A group of Cro-Magnon is migrating. Are these people descendants of the Neanderthal men, or their cousins, invaders or their conquerors? Among them we find the prototypes of our heroes: Peter - solidly built, Jumbo - indestructible, Pest - forever dissatisfied, Pierrette - charming and pretty, Maestro - the wise man with the long, white beard. At the encampment, under the guidance of Maestro, the young boys are making tools by striking and shaping stones. Meanwhile the older ones, the hunters, come back empty-handed from the hunt, because the herds have gone far off and are migrating. They decide to break camp and follow them. On their way they meet another tribe whose chief is Pest. Impressed by the implements the boys have made, he offers to give them a large number of mammoth skins in exchange. This barter is done, and the tribes go their ways before finding a site for the new encampment...

The inhabitants of a peaceful neolithic villlage have just discovered how to cultivate the soil. But the harvested grain is coveted by pillagers, and the villagers are obliged to protect themselves by erecting stockades. While our little settlement goes about its humdrum daily routine, the Middle East has already become the seat of highly evolved civilizations: Jarmo in Irak, Jericho in Palestine, Ban-Chiang in Thailand, Chatal-Hayouk in Turkey. Maestro has just returned from the latter after an interminable voyage and is recounting its marvels to the inhabitants of his little village perched on the high plateau of Iran. The crowd, however, makes a laughing stock of him, and the old Master, vexed, decides to set off on a new adventure. This time, his two youthful disciples, Peter Junior and Jumbo Junior, are to accompany him ...

In Mesopotamia, kingdoms rise and fall until the coming of Hamurabi, who imposes his system of law and order – of which we are given a few illustrations. It is a time of mass migrations. Under the successive waves of invaders the Assyrians grow warlike. We see them about to turn Nineva into the capital of terror. The Medes and Babylonians join forces against this bloodthirsty beast. Finally, Nebuchadnezzer raises the proud city to the ground. Zarathoustra preaches in the streets of the sumptuous city of Babylon. But, in all this newfound opulence, who will listen to him? The Persian prince Cyrus was raised in the school of Zarathoustra. And when he builds his empire and conquers Babylon in 539, it is the first time in history that humankind experiences a good and generous conqueror...

"The streets of Knossos in 500 BC: the inhabitants are elegant and cheerful, the houses modern, it's civilization advanced. No bloodthirsty gods, no powerful army. Only the joy, the pleasure of living... It wouldn't last though. The Achaeans, jealous of its civilization, come to invade Crete. It remains for the barbarians to surpass their masters. At the same time as Darius the Great is building the sumptuous palace at Persepolis, Buddha and Confucius are spreading their influence in the Orient, and a young democracy is governing in Athens. 450 BC: Socrates is twenty years old. Pericles is 45 when he gives the discourse in which he defines the rights and obligations of a democratic state at the Pnyx..."