Le Marcheur

The walker is a dual character. Walking frees the spirit, but his steps are eager to people it with landscapes, sensations, memories, faces, from Jean Rouch to Henri Langlois, from Ladakh to Kenya. Step after step, the present fades away, and the past floods in. Walking means not only covering long distances, but also includes stops where the infinite mixes with the intimate, where the universal hangs on the stability of a foot, the knot of a shoelace. By putting a distance between oneself and the world, walking curiously manages to abolish distances, merging continents and cultures, linking experiences that the world separates, the pure and the impure, the body and the divine, the solar and deep-rootedness. The walker does not go from one place to another, he crosses through, a shadow vanishing into the darkness of night. (Yann Lardeau)