>> Catalog 2025

Madame soie Cévennes

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Madame soie Cévennes

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Madame soie Cévennes

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JAPAN, FRANCE / 2025 / Japanese, French / Color / DCP / 87 min

Director: Sato Koichi
Narration: Bando Tamasaburo
Music: Koseki Yoshihiro
Production Assistant: Kawasaki Hitomi
Producers: Hosoo Masao, Takahashi Takuya
Appearances: Shimoyama Kikuo, Michel Costa, Takamatsu Shuto, Richard Collasse

Legendary Cévennes silk, said to have been beloved by Marie Antoinette. Called the most beautiful silk in the world, of a divinely white color, it has been passed down through generations in France as part of its textile heritage. Now, three centuries later, it has been revived in Japan. Over the course of three years, we documented the efforts of sericulturists, weavers, dyers, and scholars of Japanese-French history working at the forefront of the silk industry to carry this tradition and its techniques into the future. This film comprehensively documents the heretofore unseen skill of artisans’ handiwork, and the exhilarating colors of dyes drawn from natural materials.

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[Director’s Statement] Silk farming was once an intensely thriving industry in Japan. There’s a saying: “It begins and ends with the mulberry tree,” as mulberry leaves are so crucial to raising silkworms. Many people remember stepping into silkworm sheds as children and hearing the soft rustle of mulberry leaves being eaten—a vivid sensory memory that has stayed with them ever since. Back then, people would affectionately call them “Little Silkworm,” as if speaking to a small friend or household companion. As that nickname suggests, they were a familiar part of daily life. At the same time, they were also called “Revered Silkworm”—a more respectful name, reflecting the mysterious, almost sacred way they gave their entire lives to producing that beautiful white silk. Indeed, there’s something almost divine in their form. For my previous film about safflowers, Benibana no moribito (2022), I toured theaters across the country, addressing audiences from the stage. At that time, many people spoke to me, saying, “Your next film must be about silk, right?” After all, safflowers as a dye are closely connected with silk as a woven fabric. This connection led to the production of this film. This film is also the last project of the late Takahashi Takuya, who served as the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Office Director and the producer of Benibana no moribito. We made this film with the goal of creating both an introduction to the topic, but one that also says the final word on it—to reach as many people as possible, help lay the groundwork for the future of silk culture, and pass on this beautiful tradition to the next generation.