LE 5ÈME QUARTIER

Anne Couillaud has studied leather as a material. Butchers divide an animal into four quarters, each of them intended for consumption. The fifth quarter, then, is anything that is left and cannot be eaten. The animal skin is an example. Anne’s film ‘Le 5ème Quartier’ documents the slow transformation of the skin of the Lacaune sheep from a by-product to a luxury material. The film also explains how the quality of the leather becomes degraded, and how tanneries in the French leather-producing region of Millau are having to import skins from Spain.