Matti Ke Lal - Fils de la terra

At an early age, Vijay Pal lost his parents. At school, he was badgered and told that God had wilfully taken them from him. Vengeful, he met a man later on in life who taught him that bitterness is useless and that only the strong are really free. Vijay Pal took this advice to heart, became a wrestler and after his wrestling career dedicated the remainder of his life to training orphans from Delhi, so they, too, would be strong and mature. With this new goal in life, the now 98-year-old guru also got another name: Hanuman, the monkey god in Hindu mythology. The Algerian-French director Elisabeth Leuvrey films Hanuman‘s pupils during wrestling practices in taut black-and-white images and from a respectful distance. The black-and-white play with light and shadow and the soundtrack with tabla music add more poetry to the wrestlers‘ graceful yet powerful movements. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)