Hot Docs 2019 Reviews: The Miracle of The Little Prince

Apr 26, 2019- Permalink

The Miracle of the Little Prince

It’s day two and my 2019 Hot Docs experience started with a screening of Marjoleine Boonstra’s The Miracle of the Little Prince. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is the third most translated book on the planet. For some translators, the popular story has become a way to preserve the memory of endangered languages such as Tibetan, North Africa’s Tamazight, the Sámi language of Scandinavia and El Salvador’s Nawat.

The translators each have a personal mission to preserve their cultures and they’re interpretations of the story also reflect local philosophies, politics and biases. Two Tibetan translators, exiled in Paris, see it as a way to remain connected to the homeland they can’t go back to. The El Salvadorian translator works with a team of village women who are among the last 200 people to have knowledge of the Nawat language. The doc may seem a bit dry and slow-paced at times, but to linguists and lovers of languages, it is a valuable academic tool.