After picking up shed-loads of awards it quietly disappeared from view. Which is a great pity because it is one of the most lyrical, beautiful films ever made.
Think of it as a cinematic poem, looking at a day in the lives of the people who lived in a remote part of Venezuela: one group harvested salt, the other group fished. They lived lives of almost unimaginable harshness in this extraordinary desert landscape.
It was a way of life that had been going on for centuries though (fortunately) it would shortly all end with mechanisation replacing the back-breaking labour. So this film is also a salute to a way of life that was about to disappear.
A US DVD has now been released -- but you can safely order it no matter where you live because it's not region encoded and will play on any DVD player.
Highly, highly recommended.
1 comment:
I just saw this via Netflix in the US. The original film must have been restored as the image quality was flawless. The documentary itself was excellent in that "vanishing way of peasant life" genre and it has definitely stood the test of time.
All those shirtless salt miners made it very easy on the eyes as well!
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