FILM EVENING: THE MIRACLE OF THE LITTLE PRINCE

Thursday, 7 November 2019, 7.30pm (doors 7pm)

Screening at the Dutch Centre, Austin Friars, followed by Q & A with Marjoleine Boonstra (film director), Prof. Reinier Salverda (UCL) and Lucelle Pardoe (translator)

Review from Idfa: ‘The Miracle of the Little Prince’ (2018)

‘For centuries the roads have been deceiving us, only from the sky can you discover the true face of Earth.’ Antoine de Saint Exupéry. Next to the Bible, The Little Prince is the most translated book in the world. It has versions in over 300 different languages. Why do people from very diverse cultures choose precisely this book to keep their languages and cultures alive?

Language makes us what we are. It is essential to be allowed to think, dream and speak in your mother tongue.

From the heavens, where the pilot and the author of the book, Antoine de St. Exupéry, felt most at home, this film has landed among the dedicated translators of ‘The Little Prince’. They all fight for the preservation of their language which is under threat. Why do people from the most diverse cultures choose this book to keep their language and culture alive?

In the desert of Morocco, among the sand and stars, live writer Lahbib Fouad and his friend, the poet Omar Taous. For over 30 years they've been fighting for Tamazight, the Berber language that's officially the second language of Morocco, but that's barely written or read. The fact that the little prince talks with animals is commonplace in their culture.

In the land of the Sami, at the border of Norway and Finland, we meet Kerttu Vuolab. When she was young, she was bullied at boarding school because of her language and culture. After the tragic death of her younger sister, who drowned in the river near her home, she was even lonelier than before and she found comfort in The Little Prince. While attending university, she decided to translate the book into Sami.

The Tibetan translation is by Tashi Kyi and Noyon-tsang Lamokyab. Both of them live as exiles in Paris, cut off from their family, their landscape, culture and language. That language is menaced and purged by the Chinese.

Through the air we connect these languages and cultures. With the words of the little prince we stretch a line across the world in which the notions of comfort and hope, that are so beautyfully interlaced in The Little Prince, find their echo in the struggle of the translators and their friends. No matter how much their cultures differ, what connects them is that they are able to convince us that it is essential for people to be allowed to think, dream and speak in their native language.

https://international.eyefilm.nl/IDFA-2018-The-Miracle-of-the-Little-Prince.html

Marjoleine Boonstra, director & script

Marjoleine Boonstra is a Dutch film director and photographer with over 25 years of experience. Her documentaries always circle around the theme: what keeps mankind alive. In 2015 her first feature film Kurai KuraI, tales on the wind premiered (Prix Emile Guimet 2014). She combines a poetic visual approach with a compassionate view on the world, which make her documentaries striking and touching. www.marboni.nl

Lies Janssen, researcher & script

Lies Janssen is a Dutch researcher and scriptwriter. The last 10 years she teams up often with Marjoleine Boonstra. Together they made Keep on steppin', seven New Orleans sketches, about New Orleans after Katrina, inspired by William Faulkner. In 2014 they worked together on The silence of Mark Rothko, in which they explore what lies behind Rothko's imposing coloured planes and visualize his sources of inspiration.

Pieter van Huijstee, producer

Pieter van Huystee started his own production company In 1995. He worked with renowned Dutch documentary filmmakers like Johan van der Keuken (Global village), Heddy Honigmann (Crazy) and Renzo Martens as well as promising young makers like Niels van Koevorden and Sabine Lubbe-Bakker (Ne me quitte pas). His documentaries, feature films, single plays and shorts screened at festival all over the world and have been awarded many times.

WC1E 6BT, Bloomsbury, London to Austin Friars, London - Google Maps https://www.google.com/maps/dir/WC1E+6BT,+Bloomsbury,+Londo...

1 of 2 31/10/2019, 21:31

WC1E 6BT, Bloomsbury, London to Austin Friars, London - Google Maps https://www.google.com/maps/dir/WC1E+6BT,+Bloomsbury,+Londo...

2 of 2 31/10/2019, 21:31