Year after year, Sanabhai brings his family to a seasonal saline desert in Gujarat India, where they harvest what they proudly proclaim to be the world’s whitest salt, using the same painstaking, manual techniques as generations before them. Hardship and exploitation loom large in this film, but director Farida Pacha lets this speak for itself, instead fixing her gaze on the poetry and ritual of Sanabhai and his family’s existence. Exquisite camerawork and a haunting score help Pacha expose the austere beauty of the subject.
Farida Pacha, Switzerland, 2013, 92 min
Fünf Seen Filmfestival (2016): Horizonte Filmpreis
OV/d/f