Nuit de poussière
Ali Hazara
France | 2011 | 20 min
Subtitles : English, French
Ali Hazara, a product of the Varan studios, films the night-time street-sweepers of Kabul. For a miserly wage, these poor folk from the suburbs remove tons of dust from along an avenue, amid the glare of headlights and the incessant din of the traffic. Shadows among shadows, they dance a pathetic ballet: that of a country’s uncertain progress towards “modernity”.
“As long as we have breath, we have suffering”, exclaims a hoarse, panting voice-off, before adding with unfeigned irony: “dust is our great treasure.” The voice is that of a street-sweeper. Leaving home on the city outskirts with his two sons in the evening, he spends every night sweeping an avenue in central Kabul, widened in a hurry by the Japanese, who injected ten million dollars into the operation, several million of which were embezzled: “Corruption will never tire of this country”, notes the man, obliged to sweep this traffic artery all night long for a pittance. Ali Hazara, a product of the Varan studios, uses fixed shots to film this labour of Sisyphus, this Nuit de poussièregiven rhythm by the bewitching sound of the brooms and the speeding vehicles. As they drink tea, the man tries in vain to persuade his sons to take up a trade, rather than learn to read and write. But it is soon time for them to return, shadows among the shadows, dancing a pitiful ballet for the camera: that of a country’s uncertain progress towards “modernity”.
Emmanuel Chicon
Translation BMP Translations