Photographer Vincent Munier invites writer Sylvain Tesson to go in search of the rare snow leopard in the heights of Tibet. Filmmaker Marie Amiguet joins them to document the expedition. The result was a superb photo album, a Renaudot-winning book and, now, a particularly splendid film.
Posted yesterday at 8:30 a.m.
The landscapes of Tibet are wild and grandiose. This is how each scene of The snow panther takes on the appearance of a grand master’s painting. In this large territory little frequented by humans, except by a few nomads who are part of this harsh ecosystem, Vincent Munier and Sylvain Tesson speak little. And when they do, it’s in a whisper. Dressed in camouflage clothing, they blend into the environment.
They are on the lookout, and so are we, with them. Vincent Munier is the mentor, it was he who introduced Sylvain Tesson to this art of anticipation. You have to understand the animal, plan its movements, its behavior. Then hide. Make way for silence, waiting, observation.
In voice-over, Sylvain Tesson makes a few brief, precise, elegant comments, often taken from his book, also entitled The snow panther. He evokes the “puppet theater of man, absurd and appalling”, he speaks of patience, “the most elegant and forgotten virtue”, he opposes the “everything, immediately” of modern existence to the “probably nothing” of the lookout.
Fortunately, the arid mountains of Tibet conceal a unique fauna, which Vincent Munier and Marie Amiguet film with reverence.
We perceive the warm exhalation of deer in the icy air of early morning, we observe the cruel expression of a Pallas cat, so cute at first sight, we see the ferocious appearance of the Tibetan fox.
And the snow leopard? Vincent Munier and Sylvain Tesson find traces on the ground, an automatic camera films the animal. The panther is there. She observes the men. Will they eventually see it? The expedition must soon come to an end, Sylvain Tesson begins to moderate his hopes, to make up his mind.
The snow panther deserves to be seen on the big screen in order to become deeply immersed in this communion with nature, this serenity, but also moments of humor that punctuate this great quest.
Indoors
Documentary
The snow panther
Marie Amiguet and Vincent Munier
With Sylvain Tesson, Vincent Munier
93 minutes
Indoors