About

Known credits:
14
Birthday:
1972-04-26
Place of birth:
Paris, France
Website:
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Sylvain Tesson

Overview

Sylvain Tesson (born 26 April 1972) is a French writer and traveller born in Paris. He has engaged in a number of unusual travels and expeditions which are the basis for his books. Among his most successful works are The Consolations of the Forest (2011), about a project to live alone in a Siberian cabin for six months and The Art of Patience (2019), about the quest for snow leopards in Tibet. For the latter book he received the Prix Renaudot.

Sylvain Tesson is the son of Marie-Claude Tesson and the journalist Philippe Tesson who founded the French newspaper Le Quotidien de Paris. His sisters are the actress Stephanie Tesson and the art journalist Daphne Tesson. He is a geographer by background and holds a degree in geopolitics.

In 1991, he crossed central Iceland on a motorcycle, and then took part in a cave exploration in Borneo. In 1993 and 1994, he toured the world by bicycle with Alexandre Poussin, whom he had known since secondary school. The two friends then completed their studies in geography. He wrote about the trip in 1996, in the book On a roulé sur la terre, for which he received the youth IGN prize.

Again with Poussin, in 1997 he crossed the Himalaya by foot, a five-month journey of 5000 kilometers from Bhutan to Tajikistan. He and Poussin then collaborated on the book La Marche dans le ciel: 5000 km à pied à travers l'Himalaya in 1998. In 1999 and 2000, he and photographer Priscilla Telmon crossed the steppes of central Asia from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan on horseback. That trip led to two books: La Chevauchée des steppes in 2001, and Carnets de Steppes: à cheval à travers l'Asie centrale in 2002. In 2001 and 2002, he participated in archeological expeditions in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

From May 2003 to January 2004, he followed the route allegedly used by Sławomir Rawicz to escape the gulag as Rawicz described in his book, The Long Walk (1955). Rawicz travelled from Yakutsk in Siberia to Calcutta in India on foot. Tesson concluded the journey was plausible, though there are inconsistencies, such as Rawicz's claim of ten days without water in the Gobi. Tesson wrote a book with photographer Thomas Goisque based on this experience, Sous l'étoile de la liberté. Six mille kilomètres à travers l'Eurasie sauvage ("Under the star of liberty. Six thousand kilometers across the Eurasian wild.")

In 2010, Tesson undertook a project to live alone for six months on the shores of Lake Baikal in a rustic cabin during winter, about 50 km north of Irkutsk. In his own words, "the recipe for happiness: a window on Baikal, a table by the window". He recounted his time in Siberia in a book The Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin on the Siberian Taiga. It won the 2014 Dolman Best Travel Book Award. He also released a film titled Alone, 180 days on Lake Baikal (2011), directed by Tesson and Florence Tran, and the book was adapted into the drama film In the Forests of Siberia (2016), directed by Safy Nebbou and starring Raphaël Personnaz. Between 2011 and 2018 Tesson was the president of an NGO, La Guilde Européenne du Raid. In 2015 he won the Prix de la Page 112. ...

Source: Article "Sylvain Tesson" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Known for

Acting

2023 En toute liberté - Une radio pour la paix Actor Self 59
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2021 The Velvet Queen Actor Self 62
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2021 La voie des glaces Actor Self N/A
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2018 Les îles Eparses avec Sylvain Tesson Actor Self N/A
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2017 White Peaks of Siberia Actor Self N/A
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2015 Sylvain Tesson, une liberté vertigineuse Actor Self N/A
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2011 Alone, 180 Days on Baikal Lake Actor Self 59
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Lawrence d'Arabie, un rêve d'Orient Actor Self N/A
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Directing

2015 Alone 180 Days on Lake Baikal Directing Director 59
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2011 Alone, 180 Days on Baikal Lake Directing Director 59
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Lawrence d'Arabie, un rêve d'Orient Directing Director N/A
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Writing

2023 On the Wandering Paths Writing Author 60
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2020 Patagonia Wings Writing Writer 59
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2004 Of Penguins and Men Writing Writer 59
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