Experiencing Interruptions?

What if Babel was just a Myth?

On the banks of the Moyen-Chari River in southern Chad, young linguist Florian Lionnet is documenting Láàl, a language isolate only spoken in two small villages and threatened of disappearing in the short to medium term.
In the steps of Lionnet, the film goes out to meet villagers and explore their relation to languages.
People in this part of the world speak between five and seven languages.
With their testimonies, one discovers a deeply multilingual humanity, made up of a myriad societies, each endlessly using language to encode its knowledge, its culture, and much more: its entire worldview.
Could it be that multilingualism is the “natural” state of humanity?
And what do we lose with the death of all these small languages?

  • Sandrine Loncke
    Director
  • Sandrine Loncke
    Writer
  • Sandrine Loncke
    Producer
  • Charlotte Krebs
    Camera
  • Sandrine Loncke
    Camera
  • Romain Grésillon
    Editing and infographics
  • Samuel Mittelman
    Sound editing
  • Paul Champart - Studios TCS
    Colorist
  • Florian Lionnet (Princeton University)
    Scientific advisor
  • Oumou Sangare
    Music
    BMV Rights Management (France)
  • Makan Badje Tounkara
    Music
    Buda Musique
  • Sory Kandia Kouyate
    Music
    Traditional
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Et si Babel n'était qu'un mythe ?
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    scientific, visual anthropology, travel, biodiversity, African societies, music, languages, ethnography, cultural diversity
  • Runtime:
    55 minutes 40 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 1, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    France
  • Country of Filming:
    Chad
  • Language:
    Arabic, French, Other
  • Shooting Format:
    hd 1920x1080 50i
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Rome Prisma Independent Film Awards
    Roma
    Italy
    June-July 2019 Finalist for the Best Feature Doc
  • Jacques Chirac-Quai Branly Museum, Paris
    Paris
    France
    June 18, 2019
    French preview screening
  • Festival International du film chamanique
    Sarlat
    France
    September 28, 2019
    French Premiere
    Audience Favorite Award
  • Babel Film Festival
    Cagliari
    Italy
    December 2, 2019
    European Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Festival Curieux Voyageurs
    Saint-Étienne
    France
    March 27, 2021
    Special Jury Award
  • Festival Ethnografilm
    Paris
    France
    April 24, 2020
    Official Selection (postponed to april 2022 - Covid-19).
  • FIFEQ - Festival International du Film Ethnographique du Québec
    Montréal
    Canada
    May 8, 2020
    International and North American Premiere
    Official Selection
  • AFO 55 - 55th International Festival of Science Documentary Films
    Olomouc
    Czech Republic
    October 8, 2020
    Special screening 'out of competition'
  • International Conference « Minority languages spoken or signed & inclusive spaces »
    Paris (INSHEA)
    France
    May 13, 2021
    Academic screening
  • SCINEMA - International Science Film Festival
    Adelaide
    Australia
    August 1, 2020
    Oceanian Premiere
    Official Selection into SCINEMA International Science Film Festival Community Screenings (Australia’s Science Channel, Royal Institution of Australia).
  • FICCSUR - Festival Internacional de Cine del Cono SUR
    Valparaiso
    Chile
    May 21, 2020
    South American Premiere
    Official Selection
  • RSFF - Raw Science Film Festival
    Los Angeles
    United States
    April 16, 2020
    Official Selection
  • FEL XXIV - International Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages
    University College of London (UCL)
    United Kingdom
    September 23, 2020
    Academic screening
  • TIFF - Tagore International Film Festival
    Bolpur
    India
    Asian Premiere
    2021 Nominee for the Best Documentary Film
  • AEI Film Festival - Cyprus Archaeological, Ethnographic and Historical Film Festival
    Nicosia
    Cyprus
    September 10, 2020
    Semi-Finalist
  • Intima Lente/Intimate Lens - Festival di Film Etnografici
    Caserta
    Italy
    December 22, 2019
    Official Selection
  • French Institute of Chad
    N’Djamena
    Chad
    March 17, 2020
    Academic screening
  • 40th NAFA International Ethnographic Film Festival
    Lisbon
    Portugal
    June 9, 2021
    Official Selection (postponed to June 2021 - Covid-19).
  • IFEF - 29th International Festival of Ethnological Film
    Belgrad
    Serbia
    October 16, 2020
    'Dragoslav Antonijević' Grand Prize
  • #LabMeCrazy! Science Film Festival
    Pamplona
    Spain
    Finalist 'Best University Film'
  • Awareness Film Festival
    Los Angeles
    United States
    Merit Award of Awareness
  • 24th Pärnu Film Festival
    Pärnu and Tartu
    Estonia
    October 24, 2020
    Best Scientific Doc Award
  • Trujillo International Independent Film Festival
    Trujillo
    Peru
    September 26, 2020
    Official Selection
  • IFFEHC - International Film Festival Environment, Health, Culture
    Djakarta
    Indonesia
    July 18, 2020
    Special Mention
  • Out of Africa International Film Festival
    Nairobi
    Kenya
    November 26, 2020
    African Premiere
    Offical Selection (postponed to November 2021 - Covid-19).
  • Short Long World Festival
    Corrientes
    Argentina
    November 7, 2020
    Official Selection
  • 18th 'Partances' Film Festival
    Toulouse
    France
    March 5, 2021
    Official Selection (postponed to March 2022 - Covid-19).
  • Findecoin - International Short and Feature Film Festival
    Puerto la Cruz
    Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of
    March 25, 2021
    Official Selection
  • 7th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation
    University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (Honolulu)
    United States
    March 6, 2021
    Academic screening
  • Festival Peuples et Musiques au Cinéma
    Toulouse
    France
    June 26, 2021
    Official Selection
  • 10è ACAMPADOC - Festival internacional de Cine Documental
    La Villa de Los Santos
    Panama
    July 15, 2021
    Central America
    Official Selection
  • Nuit européenne des chercheur.e.s
    Saint-Étienne
    France
    September 24, 2021
    Official Selection
  • RAM Film Festival - Rovereto Archeologia Memorie
    Rovereto
    Italy
    October 16, 2021
    Special Mention CinemA.Mo.Re
  • Espiello - Festival Internacional de Documental Etnográfico de Sobrarbe
    Boltaña
    Spain
    April 1, 2022
    'Guillermo Zúñiga' ASECIC Prize
  • World Film Carnival
    Singapore
    Singapore
    October 5, 2021
    Asia
    Women’s Films Award
  • QIIFF - Quetzalcoatl Indigenous International Film Festival
    Mexico
    Mexico
    November 22, 2022
    Central America
    Official selection
  • Festival Anako
    Loudun
    France
    June 26, 2022
    Official selection
  • TAC Festival - 16th Archaeology Channel International Film Festival
    Eugene, Oregon
    United States
    May 18, 2022
    Nominee
  • Cinematic European Film Festival
    Bania
    Romania
    June 14, 2022
    Official selection
  • SVA Film and Media Festival - Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival
    Seattle, WA
    United States
    November 12, 2022
    Official selection and online showcase
  • Festival Curieux Voyageurs
    Saint-Étienne
    France
    March 20, 2021
    Prix Spécial du Jury
  • Vienna Science Film Festival
    Vienna
    Austria
    January 5, 2023
    Finalist
  • Spotlight on Academics Film Festival
    Thunder Bay, Ontario
    United States
    February 9, 2023
    Official selection
  • Kratfest – The International Festival of Ethnological Documentary Films
    Kratovo
    Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of
    October 13, 2023
    Official selection
Distribution Information
  • Andana Films
    Distributor
    Country: France
    Rights: All Rights
  • Icarus Films
    Distributor
    Country: United States
    Rights: All Rights, Video on Demand, Video / Disc
  • ADAV (only for French non-commercial cultural and educational sectors)
    Distributor
    Country: France
Director Biography - Sandrine Loncke

Sandrine Loncke is a French ethnomusicologist and filmmaker.

She favours working in immersion within small voiceless societies to explore with her camera the question of cultural difference and the way we look at the Others.

She is the author of several books on West African Fulani societies (Burkina Faso and Niger), and of the award-winning feature documentary “Dance with the Wodaabes” (Nanook-Jean Rouch Grand Prize, Researcher Film Festival Award - France 2010).

In this second film, incidentally released during the « International Year of Indigenous Languages » decreed by the United Nations, she explores the question of multilingualism as a ‘natural’ state of speaking humanity and the risks related to a radical loss of linguistic diversity in the world.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

As Europeans, we come from highly centralized political systems which have for the most part enforced linguistic unification within their borders. Spontaneously, we see linguistic diversity as an obstacle to inter-understanding.
A contrario, the film, which follows a young linguist studying a small endangered language of southern-Chad, shows that giving up one's language to adopt that of the majority is hardly a natural human tendency.
In the absence of political or economical constraints, it seems that every society prefers to keep its linguistic particularities, even if it means having to learn the six or seven languages of its neighbours!
It is certainly by virtue of this tendency that such a linguistic diversity has been able to develop through millennia on our planet.
Through the example of a small African village, "What if Babel was just a Myth?" is thus an advocacy for cultural diversity.
At a time when the loss of biodiversity has become a major concern, have we properly measured the role played by small indigenous societies in preserving ecosystems?