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PRODUCTION Hungary

Alexander Csoma de Körös or the Bodhisattva Magyar

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Last lap in post-production for A Guest of Life: Alexander Csoma de Körös, first feature from composer of film music Tibor Szemzo. Retracing in documentary form the astonishing life of one of the most famous of Hungarians the Orientalist Alexander Csoma Koros (born 1784 in Transylvania nd died in 1842, in Darjeeling, in India), the film does not hide its international ambitions since it called on actress Susannah York to record the English-language commentary. From a modest family, Alexander Csoma Koros worked as servant to pay for his studies at school, then he took up a course in oriental languages in Göttingen in Allemagne. In 1819, he decided to travel by foot across Asia to get to India via notably Iran and Afghanistan, with a mere bagatelle of 17 languages en route. Staying in Tibet and living with monks, he discovered holy Buddhist scriptures and set about translating them, works which inspired notably Schopenhauer. His first Tibetan dictionary (40 000 words) was published in an English version after his death from malaria. Today, his tomb, at the feet of Himalayas, is a place of pilgrimage, and the Dalai Lama qualified him as a saint during his visit to Hungary.

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Produced by György Durst for Mediawave 2000 Ltd. with Duna TV as co-producer, A Guest of Life: Alexander Csoma de Körös had a budget of 260 000 euros. Filmed in Super 8, it required, according to his producer, two years to raise enough money and had to overcome technical difficulties in developing the super 8 images. The film’s première is set for the next Hungarian Film Week, early February 2006.

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(Translated from French)

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