The miracle of Le petit prince (2018)

Directed by: Marjoleine Boonstra | 89 minutes | documentary

If you compare it to environmental problems and the violation of human rights worldwide, it is of course logical that the disappearance of languages ​​does not occupy an important place on the agenda of government leaders. That’s why it’s so nice to have filmmakers like Marjoleine Boonstra. She portrays this issue in an inspiring way. With ‘The miracle of Le petit prince’ she shows how people in all corners of the world try to keep their language and – inextricably linked to it – their culture alive.

Using the world-famous book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le petit prince, which is the most translated book in the world after the Bible, Boonstra visits translators in Morocco, Finnish Lapland, El Salvador and Tibet and Paris. And it soon becomes clear how important language is for one’s identity and feeling. A Sami woman tells – apparently coolly – about her childhood. After the death of her younger sister, her parents sent her to a Finnish boarding school. Here she was not allowed to speak her native language. Because she didn’t speak a word of Finnish, she was bullied and left out. You can hear the emotion between the lines.

A little more lighthearted are the images shot in El Salvador. A translator argues with three elderly ladies about how a conversation between the little prince and the rose can best be translated into the forbidden language Nawat. Funny detail is that there is no word for the word ‘rose’ in Nawat, because people simply did not know the flower before it was imported. The language is now spoken by only a few hundred people, the youngest of whom is 55. Despite the funny-sounding discussions, you are also touched here by the grief of the people for the irrevocable loss of their culture and language.

For her subject, Boonstra uses the style she already used in ‘Kurai Kurai’ (2014). Because ‘The miracle of Le petit prince’ is so poetic and subtle, the message may be lost for some viewers. That’s a shame, because that will probably limit the audience. On the other hand, however, it is appropriate. After all, the book that inspired this documentary is also not appreciated by everyone. It is often labeled as a children’s book, while there may be so much wisdom to be learned from it for adults.

Besides food for the head and soul, ‘The miracle of Le petit prince’ is also a pleasure for the eye. Boonstra, who has a background as a photographer, knows how to portray the landscapes in such a way that you can almost imagine yourself on one of the planets that the little prince visits. Unworldly beautiful. ‘The miracle of Le petit prince’ is a beautiful document about passion, culture and the comfort that books can bring.