Factual

French distributor ZED has launched international sales on “Sulawesi, A New Origin Story”, a major science documentary revealing what is now considered the world’s earliest known rock art.

Directed by Pascal Goblot and Denis van Waerebeke, the film offers exclusive access to key rock art sites on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, placing viewers at the center of one of the most significant archaeological breakthroughs of recent decades.

Recently unveiled in the prestigious scientific journal “Nature”, new research has identified the oldest known cave imagery: negative hand stencils discovered in the Liang Metanduno cave and dated to at least 67,800 years old. Led by renowned researchers including Maxime Aubert, Adam Brumm and Adhi Agus Oktaviana, the discovery is reshaping the global timeline of human creativity.

By pushing back the origins of image-making by at least 15,000 years and challenging the long-held belief that art originated in Europe, the findings are rewriting the cultural history of Homo sapiens while offering new insights into early human migration and cognitive evolution.

Blending cinematic exploration with high-end science storytelling and exclusive scientific content, “Sulawesi, A New Origin Story” positions itself as a premium factual offering for broadcasters and platforms, sitting at the intersection of archaeology, human origins and global history.

Produced by Zadig Productions and Escalenta for ARTE France, the 52-minute documentary is set to premiere on ARTE in April 2026.

ZED has already secured key international sales, including SBS (Australia) and UR (Sweden), and is now rolling the film out across the global market, with additional territories currently available.