Le hibou et la baleine

Nicolas Bouvier is a great Swiss writer, an inveterate traveller and a man of ideas. He belongs to the race of thoroughbred travellers, his eye acquainted with buddhist reading. His visits to Asia and the West have breadth and rythm and his written accounts are far removed from those of a hurried globe-trotter. A fascinating personality from many points of view, he also has an excellent eye for photography. He has chosen iconography because of his love of photography and libraries and also to earn a living.

In this film Bouvier has chosen seven particularly favoured fields of reflection interspersed with symbolic images and music of his choice.