The Snow Panther: The César for best documentary 2022 can be seen again on Arte
And for free in replay.
In the heart of the Tibetan highlands, photographer Vincent Munier leads writer Sylvain Tesson in his quest for the snow leopard. He introduces him to the delicate art of stalking, to reading tracks and to the patience necessary to catch a glimpse of the animals. By traversing the peaks inhabited by invisible presences, the two men weave a dialogue about our place among living beings and celebrate the beauty of the world.
Released just before Christmas 2022, The Snow Panther received the César for best feature documentary a few months later. A well-deserved prize? Here is the review of Firstat a time when this film arrives unencrypted on television, as well asin replay on Arte.TV.
From his trip with wildlife photographer Vincent Munier to the heart of the Tibetan highlands, Sylvain Tesson had already produced a book, The Snow Panther, Renaudot Prize 2019. In this cinema version, Marie Amiguet films the two men watching for the appearance of the famous panther, their own Moby Dick, symbol of a sublime and eternal, almost prehistoric nature. The long hours of waiting required by the lookout are an opportunity for Tesson to meditate on the virtues of solitude, concentration and disconnection. The writer-traveler plays with humor his role as an overexcited globetrotter suddenly forced to take a break, but his showman side also installs a contradiction at the heart of the film, parasitizing with words and a deluge of aphorisms a very beautiful book of images, supposed to extol the importance of contemplation and silence.
