The India Trip

In India, the home of most present adherents, this film traces the history of Hinduism, its evolution over the centuries and its connections to Buddhism and Jainism. Shown are the observances of this faith, its teaching of non-violence, its respect for all living things, how the social order created by it has been modified in the modern world to outlaw the declaration of individuals as "untouchables" and to remove limitations on freedom imposed by caste.

A young girl is taken away to a large city by train. She knows nothing about the man her parents entrust her to, and puts up no resistance. During the journey she recalls good times she spent with her family at a village fair, where she had a pretty flower tattooed on her hand. On their arrival, the child is dazzled by the lights of the city. She trustingly follows this stranger, who is leading her to a brothel. When she sees money passing from the hands of the madam to the pimp, she remembers that her father took a large sum of money from this same stranger. She realizes with horror that she has been sold. A prisoner in the brothel, the young girl is dressed up in beautiful clothes and sparkling jewelry before being shut in a filthy room. A wealthy customer appears. Through the blinds, she sees him hand a wad of bills to the madam. The man enters her room, drooling in his excitement. The child screams for help with all her might, but her cries mingle with the whistling of the train as it flies into the night... An animated film without words for twelve to seventeen year olds.

Solar eclipses, among nature's more spectacular phenomena, have always fascinated us. For some people they become a veritable obsession. What makes these eclipse chasers run? The film follows four of them as they travel incredible distances to witness the last total eclipse of the millennium as it sweeps eastward across Europe to India. At various points along the way enthusiasts Alain Cirou in France, Paul Houde in Austria, Olivier Staiger in Germany and Debasis Sarkar in India offer their impressions of the historic event. From the legends of ancient religions and civilizations to the present day, there is one constant: the search for spirituality in its most basic form. The film is a kind of poetic meditation, an impressionistic illumination of what links humanity together in the face of the absolute, when the soul is stamped by more than just the shadow of the moon. In French with English subtitles.