Sir Clarmont Skrine

Kathakali performance featuring the great Indian dancer Guru Gopinath.

Inter-mixed with scenes shot of the film-maker’s personal life (people, gardens, flowers and street life) are sequences shot of the following popular tourist destinations: Persepolis, Khajou Bridge, Jame Mosque Isfahan, Tomb of Hafez, Chehel Sotoun, Shah Mosque, the dome of Tehran Bazaar, Naqsh-e Rustam and the mountains surrounding Tehran. The footage also includes film of an un-named Iranian city from a biplane.

A trip to the spectacular city of Bundi and a Kathakali dance performance, filmed in vivid colour.

This colour, silent 16mm film shows various commercial activities on the streets of Peshawar, Kabul and other towns, highlighting the importance of trade to the people living and travelling through the North West Frontier and Khyber Pass. Architecture and archaeological sites along this important trading route are also well documented, providing a snapshot of many locations since affected by war. Made by Sir Clarmont Skrine, a British diplomat active in the 1940s this is an important record of sites of archaeological interest that have since been damaged or lost.

Film clips of animals in Iran, Pakistan and India. The animals are mainly held in captivity at local zoos. Animals filmed include camels and a calf, giraffe, a tiger and cubs, lions, elephants, crocodiles, a bear, monkeys, ostriches, parrots, puppies, flamingos and various types of antelope. There is a scene of soldiers riding laden camel carts, and also a group of soldiers marching on camels. Oxford educated, Sir Clarmont Percival Skrine (1888-1974), was a civil servant and colonial administrator. He entered the Indian Civil Service in 1912 and later was transferred to their Political Service. He served as the British consul-general in Kashgar from 1922 to 1924, Under-Secretary of State for India and agent for the Madras States from 1936 to 1939. He was a respected authority on East Persia and Chinese Central Asia.

The hunting party is filmed traversing across the edges of treacherous cliffs, one misstep away from certain death, but the height does not seem to bother these individuals who navigate the rock face with almost as much ease and grace as the markhor and bison they are tracking.

This short unedited film largely documents travel, tourist attractions some of the people encountered during Sir Clarmont Skrine’s time in the region. Highlights within the footage are the spectacular mountainous scenery to be found in Iran, Tomb of Cyrus, Persepolis, the shrine of Imam Reza, Imam Square, Chehel Sotoun, Shah Mosque, Tehran Bazaar, Ctesiphon, the Tomb of Darius and the Blue Mosque.

Amateur film by British diplomat Clarmont Skrine recording the alpine foothills and Basque coastline of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of south-western France bordering with Spain.

Amateur colour footage showing Israel and Jordan in 1953. The film opens in Jerusalem, showing the cityscape, walls, people and street scenes. Scenes in Jordan include landscapes, street scenes, crowds and dignitaries at a religious procession, mountain and valley views, architecture and ruined buildings, an encampment and ends with views of Petra.