Living Water

Jordan is one of the countries with the fewest water resources in the world. Living Water formulates a discourse on economic, political and environmental issues, starting with the struggle for access to and management of water in villages located in the Wadi Rum desert. Buried beneath this desert lies the fossilised Disi aquifer, the country’s last source of drinking water. This unsustainable water supply is reserved for large-scale farming and megalomaniacal projects in the seaside city of Aqaba, at the expense of the indigenous communities. While on the one hand, investors are taking advantage of this source for lucrative projects, on the other hand others are facing shortages and very limited access to water. This story of water is recounted collectively by specialists, workers and inhabitants, who appear in the archives and the images shot by Pavel Borecký. Living Water is a quest blending anthropology and visual ethnography through a highly masterful formal investigation. The director has made a poetic first feature length film about ’blue gold’. 

Alice Riva