Get sniffed by a gorilla! Europe’s biggest VR cinema already open in Wroclaw [FILM, PHOTOS, PRICE]

In the arcade of the Africarium in the Wroclaw zoo, 24 VR chairs make it possible for up to 1,500 persons per day to watch films in 360-degree technology. It is the biggest VR cinema in Europe.

‘We are able to move 1,500 persons per day to African rainforests and to the depths of oceans,’ says Leszek Grzyl, Executive Director of the Immotion Group. Its VR chairs stand in 60 zoos, oceanariums and aquariums around the world, from Las Vegas to Sydney. There are more of them in Wroclaw than in Paris or London, because the cinema in the Wroclaw zoo is the biggest in Europe.

VR cinema in the Wroclaw Zoo

How does it work? You take a seat, put on the VR glasses and headphones and, after a while, move straight to the heart of the Rwandan rainforest. When you come across gorillas, you see them from a very, very close range. Nay! Some of them are standing right beside you. You can notice the colour of their irises, the shape of their nostrils and ears, or even single hairs. Nay! You feel that they see you, too: they come up, stroke your head, sniff you...

Films were made in 360-degree technology, so you can turn your head in any direction and there will be a forest all around, and you are right in the middle of the action!

The picture is not all: the shaking and leaning chair makes you feel like moving, for example, riding a jeep on an African dirt road or circling above the forest.

There is only one place in the world where you can see mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) in nature: on the border of three African countries: Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

‘If you want to take part in a tour of the Volcanoes National Park in search of mountain gorillas, with no guarantee that they will be found, you have to pay 1,500 dollars. This prohibitive price protects them against mass tourism. Thanks to virtual reality, you will certainly see them in our zoo – and at an incomparably lower price. It is worth taking this opportunity because there are no monkeys from this subspecies in zoos,’ says Weronika Skupiń from the Wroclaw Zoo.

Dive into the depths

Thanks to virtual reality, you can also dive with humpbacks, sharks (the VR film about them has been watched by 1,000,000 people around the world!) or huge stingrays. You do not look at them through the glass: you swim alongside them, turn back with them and can watch them from a close range.

‘It is an amazing experience. When a shark was passing by, I reached out my hand to touch him, and when he was swimming underneath, I instinctively pulled my legs up,’ says Zosia, who arrived in the Wroclaw zoo with her classmates Zuzia and Olivia and the rest of the class on a school excursion from Lubin.

‘Not all animals can be admired in the zoo, and it is difficult to meet whales or mountain gorillas even in nature,’ summarises Joanna Kasprzak, President of the Management Board of the Wroclaw Zoo. ‘VR has made this possible. We hope that the new attraction supplements our offer perfectly.

More films to come in the zoo

The director of films presented in Wroclaw is Ken Musen – the triple winner of the Emmy Award and the Lumière Award. Their content was consulted with outstanding experts specialising in exotic species, such as Tara Stoinski from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

Leszek Grzyl, Executive Director of Immotion: ‘People have a huge impact on nature, particularly because they deprive animals of their habitats. Our films are made with respect for nature and allow millions of people to learn about animals in their natural environment from a close range. Further films are under way, and each of them has an educational purpose: to give spectators an occasion to learn, fall in love with and understand nature and, therefore, to protect it better.

List of films in the VR cinema in the Wroclaw Zoo

There are six productions to choose from:

- a film with gorillas,

- four underwater films (with sharks, stingrays, reef fish and humpbacks),

- an animation film about a mermaid for children.

VR cinema in Wroclaw [prices, tickets]

Tickets to the VR cinema are available only on the spot – in the arcade of the Africarium. It is an independent commercial service, so you cannot buy them in the ticket counters of the zoo.

Gorillas: single ticket 35 PLN, double ticket 60 PLN

Humpbacks: single ticket 32 PLN, double ticket 55 PLN

Stingrays: single ticket 32 PLN, double ticket 55 PLN

Coral reef: single ticket 32 PLN, double ticket 55 PLN

Sharks: single ticket 30 PLN, double ticket 50 PLN

Additional screening: single ticket 20 PLN, double ticket 30 PLN

There are discounts for school excursions.