Le Sel de la Terre - The Salt of the World

The Salt of the World
Le Sel de la Terre

Documentary
Brasil, Italy, France, 2015, 110 min.

Realisation: Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Distribution: Métropole Films Distribution

This is a remarkable film, a tribute to life and work of the Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado. The scope of the film is truly epic. It covers 40 years of the photographer's life and takes the spectators through all the major recent events in history, trough international conflicts, starvation, involuntary exodus-migrations and mass death. Salgado's photography reveals the extend of misery millions of people were made to suffer, most of it largely not in the vision-focus of the prosperous nations' populace. The film makes a statement that all the people, each individual person is the salt of the world of this Earth, each equally deserving life, respect, dignity and basic means and conditions for peaceful living.

Salvado's constant work on documenting extreme human suffering, of creating his visual stories of it, caused him to become ill in his body and spirit. He stopped taking pictures for quite a while. What helped him to come back to his art was changing his focus from portraying human misery to concentrating instead on the beauty and power of nature, its ability to regenerate itself, especially when helped by a carrying human hand which rebuilds what was previously destroyed. His latest photographic project is called Genesis. It documents those parts of the world which look like they did at the times of the biblical Genesis, with its pristine vistas, wild flora and fauna, and grandiose landscapes. 

Salvado's photographs are black and white. He works masterfully with many shades of greys to brings depth and expression to his images. His photographs are true works of art with many layers of meaning. I highly recommend everybody to see this film.

Film's trailer

The film is presently shown at the Montreal's Cinema Excentris. To find more about the scheduling, visit the cinema's website.

Film Review © 2015 Nadia Slejskova