Himalaya, la terre des femmes
Himalaya, land of women
Francia / 2008 / 52 min / Colour
Sking is one of the most isolated villages in the Himalayan region of Zanskar at an altitude of almost 4000 meters in the north of India. The people who live here have only three months, from August to October, to reap the harvest and store it on the roofs of the little brick houses. Summer is very brief, but winter seems to drag on forever. It is the women, be they young or old, who are responsible for the harvest, which goes on from dawn until dusk without a break. They know that winter will arrive, early and implacable. Marianne Chaud lived for one summer with these women and she tells us their story. By living with them, helping with their work, speaking their language, and listening to their worries, hopes and dreams, she gives us an intimate portrait in which the movie cameras seem to disappear. The director enters into the lives of the women of Sking as though she is one of them. In the foreground are the faces and expressions of four generations of women; in the background, the magnificent, tremendous mountains of Zanskar.
Marianne Chaud
A French ethnologist and documentary filmmaker born in 1976, her anthropological research focuses primarily on the Ladakh-Zanskar region of the Himalayas. She specialized at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She directed Himalaya, la erre des Ffemmes (2007) and Himalaya, le chemin du ciel (2008), both Lessinia d’Argento winners and awardees at the Trento Film Festival and the Festival Internazionale del Cinema di Montagnain Autrans.La nuit nomade (2012) also earned recognition at the Film Festival della Lessinia.
Credits
Language English Subject Marianne Chaud Screenplay Marianne Chaud Cinematography Marianne Chaud Sound Marianne Chaud Editing Marianne Chaud Music Oliver BernetProducer Manuel Catteau Production company Zed
