Directed by Marie Amiguet and Vincent Munier
Featuring Sylvain Tesson
France / 2021 / French with English subtitles / 92 min
![[poster with the velvet queen white serif type stacked on the upper left, over a background of greyish blue sky, with a rocky cliff scattered with snow diagonally across the lower half, and a big cat at the top]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/the-velvet-queen-poster.jpg)
Ignore the misleading title. The film opens with what appear to be two Chinese military observers speculating on the work and fate of an expedition that they have been watching from afar through telescopes. One says, “There was a pack of wolves at the summit… he went to photograph them, the wolves were following him. I thought they’d gobble him up, but he came back. I have no idea what they’re doing…” And we are truly and deeply hooked.
This is at once an adventure story, a philosophical conversation, and a rich display of the best of nature/wildlife filmmaking. It’s fitting that, in interviews, nature photographer and co-director Vincent Munier cites biologist George Schaller’s reports of expeditions to Tibet as one of his inspirations for seeking the rare and notoriously elusive snow leopard. The Velvet Queen is nothing less than a bold cinematic homage to The Snow Leopard, the late Peter Matthiessen’s 1978 nonfiction masterpiece about traveling with Schaller to the Tibetan plateau.
Matthiessen’s book famously paired the author, an accomplished novelist and nature writer, with the seasoned field biologist, but their objectives were not exactly the same. Schaller was documenting the bharal, the Himalayan blue sheep. Where there are bharal, there may be snow leopards. But Matthiessen was also exploring his own mind, deepening his practice of Zen Buddhism he had begun a few years prior. He also hoped to meet a great Tibetan Buddhist lama at the Crystal Monastery in Dolpo, Nepal, near the planned expedition route. So, together, but apart…
The Velvet Queen is also a rich and introspective conversation/monologue with a writer (in this case Syvain Tesson) and co-director Munier, that moves freely between philosophy and observations of the natural world. Tesson touches on that other search when he says that for this kind of expedition, with its long days of hiking and hours of silent watching and waiting, “you need a good inner life.” His character reveals itself a bit more when he quotes, “The Earth reeks of humans.” They notice caves in the cliffs and he speaks knowledgeably of Tibetan hermits and the great Tibetan yogi Milarepa.
There’s whimsy here too, though, in a wonderful sequence with Tibetan children from a nomad camp they encounter. But the heart of this film is the raw and wild natural world they explore with nothing more than binoculars and cameras, camouflaged and whispering in awe and respect.
I was smiling from the first frames to the last for so many reasons (most of them with fur or feathers), including the Nick Cave vocals in the evocative soundtrack. The Velvet Queen was artfully and fearlessly filmed, with some miraculous footage, plus extraordinary wild animal photos by Munier. So please, see this on the big screen; the vastness of the daunting landscapes, the challenging terrain, the sense of space and of a place out of time, all are only truly experienced in a theater. It’s for nature lovers and fans of quixotic adventures, but bring a sweater or a fleece—the vivid soundtrack will chill you!
—Gaetano Kazuo Maida
