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Interesting documentary, showing a cross section of people around a road building project in the Chad desert
I saw this film as part of the Berlinale film festival 2012 (Forum section). Topic of interest is a road building operation in the Chad desert. We get the chance to see all people involved from very nearby. It is correctly labeled as a documentary, and does not contain any story whatsoever. Its running time of 2 hours is above average, but shots of road workers and house building operations, mixed with monologues spoken by all sorts of people in and around the project, worked very well to keep our attention.
From the film maker we learned that she initially walked around with a camera for one month, but it proved necessary to come back later for another three months. They were accompanied by a young man, who knew how to approach the local people. He also drove them around everywhere they wanted, and all in all proved to be a great help. At first, filming was impossible due to all the kids swarming around them. Later on, it went much better when their presence sort of blended in with the landscape. Of course, she felt very uncomfortable there in the beginning, her being relatively rich and living a comfortable life, compared with the local people there. Given enough time she learned to cope with her discomfort.
Very important in the film are the monologues as spoken by a cross section of the population. Among them we see managers, knowledge workers, road workers, and all sorts of people in and around the project. Some of the people trusted that the new road would bring important changes, like the man who had built a house near the road, with an express option to extend it later with a shop. Others were not that optimistic, at best hoping that things would be different in four years time. Still others just gambled on a better position, like the man who ran a restaurant ad-interim to feed locals and road workers, while waiting for "real" work in this road project. He mentioned others like him who got tired of waiting, and moved elsewhere in the mean time.
We observe contradictions within the building operations itself. The official road building project used modern material (incl. heavy machinery), while the building of camp houses was done mostly with ancient techniques and materials found in the environment. A similar discrepancy was visible in camp house interiors: some had modern equipment (electricity, fridge, laptop, etc) and separate bedrooms, while local people had only a television set (otherwise the wife is bored when I'm away) but stated to need nothing else.
Contradictions in self-sufficiency were also apparent. On one hand, we saw managers and knowledge workers who said to drive some 1,000 miles per month when buying meat, vegetables, milk etcetera. On the other hand, we saw that local people found everything they needed in the immediate surroundings. They needed money only to buy industrial stuff and clothes, but not to buy building materials nor food.
Of course, questions were raised whether the road would bring changes once finished. Some speculated that it may bring shops, or that it will facilitate contacts with major cities. Anyway, it will get around rivers and other natural phenomena that were unsurmountable obstacles with previous roads.
A perfect illustration how the new road triggered future planning, was seen with a women who crushed millets for 15 years already. She did it the same way (by hand on a rock) as her mother, and all mothers before her. Yet, she thinks about breaking the tradition and buying a mill.
There were also questions who can be expected to use the new road. Again, we heard ample speculations: road workers, nomads, military, UN, medics. By the way: We saw no military in this film, as it was deemed scary to interview soldiers in front of a camera (a bit of couleur locale).
Duality is a keyword in this film. For instance, road workers spoke Arabic, while managers and knowledge workers spoke French. A different example, observed on all social levels alike, is that some people lived alone, having left their family in their home land, while others brought their family and kids.
All in all, the documentary showed an interesting cross section of all the different people involved in such a project, and also non-involved local people attracted by such a project in hopes for a new job or extra income, and others just awaiting a future change for the better. Interviews are non-obtrusive, actually leading to monologues rather than question and answer dialogs. The format was very compelling and informative as the same time.
From the film maker we learned that she initially walked around with a camera for one month, but it proved necessary to come back later for another three months. They were accompanied by a young man, who knew how to approach the local people. He also drove them around everywhere they wanted, and all in all proved to be a great help. At first, filming was impossible due to all the kids swarming around them. Later on, it went much better when their presence sort of blended in with the landscape. Of course, she felt very uncomfortable there in the beginning, her being relatively rich and living a comfortable life, compared with the local people there. Given enough time she learned to cope with her discomfort.
Very important in the film are the monologues as spoken by a cross section of the population. Among them we see managers, knowledge workers, road workers, and all sorts of people in and around the project. Some of the people trusted that the new road would bring important changes, like the man who had built a house near the road, with an express option to extend it later with a shop. Others were not that optimistic, at best hoping that things would be different in four years time. Still others just gambled on a better position, like the man who ran a restaurant ad-interim to feed locals and road workers, while waiting for "real" work in this road project. He mentioned others like him who got tired of waiting, and moved elsewhere in the mean time.
We observe contradictions within the building operations itself. The official road building project used modern material (incl. heavy machinery), while the building of camp houses was done mostly with ancient techniques and materials found in the environment. A similar discrepancy was visible in camp house interiors: some had modern equipment (electricity, fridge, laptop, etc) and separate bedrooms, while local people had only a television set (otherwise the wife is bored when I'm away) but stated to need nothing else.
Contradictions in self-sufficiency were also apparent. On one hand, we saw managers and knowledge workers who said to drive some 1,000 miles per month when buying meat, vegetables, milk etcetera. On the other hand, we saw that local people found everything they needed in the immediate surroundings. They needed money only to buy industrial stuff and clothes, but not to buy building materials nor food.
Of course, questions were raised whether the road would bring changes once finished. Some speculated that it may bring shops, or that it will facilitate contacts with major cities. Anyway, it will get around rivers and other natural phenomena that were unsurmountable obstacles with previous roads.
A perfect illustration how the new road triggered future planning, was seen with a women who crushed millets for 15 years already. She did it the same way (by hand on a rock) as her mother, and all mothers before her. Yet, she thinks about breaking the tradition and buying a mill.
There were also questions who can be expected to use the new road. Again, we heard ample speculations: road workers, nomads, military, UN, medics. By the way: We saw no military in this film, as it was deemed scary to interview soldiers in front of a camera (a bit of couleur locale).
Duality is a keyword in this film. For instance, road workers spoke Arabic, while managers and knowledge workers spoke French. A different example, observed on all social levels alike, is that some people lived alone, having left their family in their home land, while others brought their family and kids.
All in all, the documentary showed an interesting cross section of all the different people involved in such a project, and also non-involved local people attracted by such a project in hopes for a new job or extra income, and others just awaiting a future change for the better. Interviews are non-obtrusive, actually leading to monologues rather than question and answer dialogs. The format was very compelling and informative as the same time.
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- JvH48
- Nov 5, 2012
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- Runtime1 hour 57 minutes
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