| |

BEYOND EMPIRES (2014)

Share

Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg is an unlikely hero for a culture so far removed from Halle in Germany. Overcoming his orphan status, chronic illness, the opposition of the Danish church, the Danish East India Company, the Brahmins of the Malabar Coast, and racist colleagues, he restores the Tamil language and its cultural treasures to the lower castes of Tamils, through provision of schools including girls for the first time in South Asia, a script for the vernacular language, the Bible translated. He becomes acknowledged by Indians as an expert in their religions. He defends the Tamil slave population and his mission from the hostilities of the East India company and his CFO back in Copenhagen but within 13 years he dies, age 36 when stress induces the return of his illness. But 300 years later in July 2006 we see the Federal government of India join with the State of Tamil Nadu in promulgating a week of remembrance of all his achievements for Tamil life and culture and issuing a Federal postage stamp in his honour. But why is the west embarrassed to give him the same honour?

Director: Christopher Gilbert

Writer: Christopher Gilbert

Cast: Mark Wacome Stevick, Anjali Guptara Khera, Daniel Jeyaraj, Brijraj Singh, Hans Raun Iversen, Anders Noorgaard, Viggo Mortensen Ph.D.

Production Company: Lamp Post Media

Producer: Christopher Gilbert

Director of Photography: Paul Van Ness

Distributor: Lamp Post Media

Filming Locations: Newton, MA, Aarhus, Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark, Mahabalipuram, India, Chennai, India, Tharangambadie, India, Cranes Beach, MA

Budget: $250,000

For more information: http://lamppostmedia.com/chris-gilbert-lamppost-media-video-promotion/about-beyond-empires/