Synopsis
When he investigates certain events that have profoundly affected his country, the Sahara in southern Morocco, the filmmaker is confronted by the silence of those around him and his parents. Everyone seems haunted by the violence of a past that is already too distant for some, and still too close for others. An elderly woman, born a nomad and forced to live in the city since the events of 1975, advises him to turn to the landscapes, stones and plants to find answers to his questions…
A word from Tënk
How can we bear witness to a complex story, a traumatic event, other than through words? How do you tell the unspeakable while respecting the right to silence and the right to forget that the elders oppose, while satisfying the desire of young people to know? Abdessamad El Montassir uses poetic metaphors to overcome the amnesia and taboos surrounding the disputed land commonly known as Western Sahara. Through snippets of stories and legends, including that of a desert plant, the only witness to what humans have experienced without being able to express it, and through images as powerful in their plastic beauty as in their simplicity, and produced in the most stripped-down style, emerge both the fate of a people who have no say in the matter and a mission that the artist-researcher is taking on for his future work.
Jürgen Ellinghaus
Programmer and filmmaker
