A Guest of life

A Guest of life is inspired by the journey of Alexander Csoma de Koros The eccentric 19th century set out from his native Transylvania to central Asia on foot only taking his knowledge of 13 dead and spoken languages with him He wanted to find the ancestors of the Hungarians but once reaching Tibet he stayed there compiling an EnglishTibetan dictionary translating and abridging Buddhist teachings and literature including the Book of the Dead The film however is not a biopic but a collection of impressions of Tibet recorded on an 8mm camera overlaid with excerpts from Csomas diary and translations spoken on the many languages familiar to Csoma Intercut with the documentarystyle footage are animated segments which tell Transylvanian folktales that have been weaved around the legendary figure of Csoma