THE SOCIETY FOR EURO-ASIAN STUDIES

will present in the cinema room of the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac

Friday, 14 February 2020 at 5 p.m.

The feature-length documentary directed in 1956 by Serge BOURGUIGNON

Sikkim ou le langage du sourire

in the presence of the director

Known to the general public through his film "Les dimanches de Ville-d'Avray", for which he won the Oscar for best foreign film in 1963, Serge Bourguignon was also a great traveller and director of documentaries on hitherto unexplored lands.

In 1955, as a young graduate in film studies, he found himself in India where, by a combination of circumstances, he obtained the rare privilege of a permit to visit for a few days Sikkim, a northeastern Indian state bordering Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan, inhabited at that time by some 100,000 people. The result of this short stay was this exceptional documentary in which, in addition to the beauty of the landscapes, he filmed with sensitivity and complicity scenes of the daily and ritual life of this colourful population with multiple languages, Hindu and Buddhist practices, which was still on the verge of any modern influence. A few English soldiers and Alexandra David-Neel were among the rare visitors to this country suspended between the Himalayan peaks and the alluvial plains, where all innovation came from.

The precocity of this shooting makes it a precious testimony for the knowledge and understanding of the Himalayan cultures.

This film was presented to the Association pour le Rayonnement des Cultures Himalayennes A.R.C.H. on May 9, 2019 2