Chandigarh
Le Devenir d'une utopie
Sylvain Roumette
1999 - 52 min - Beta numérique - Couleur - France

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Indian city of Chandigarh, the capital shared by two states in the north of the country – Punjab and Haryana.
Created for purely political reasons, this "ideal city" as it was termed, had been built from scratch as a symbol of the "new India" after the country's independance in 1947. Nehru had turned to one of the principal standard bearers of modern architecture, Le Corbusier, for whom architecture and urban planning held the key to social changes.
Neither trial nor celebration of Le Corbusier's work, but a vibrant portrait of the city and its inhabitants. Chandigarh looks with a certain historic distance at the "past and future of utopia".