Araya

This documentary-style, relatively short feature film is poignant, stunning in it's simplicity and rich in its humane impulses; it features actual workers in an almost impossibly hostile semi-desert bordering on the ocean that has served as a salt mine for over 450 years; the huge pyramids of salt are impressive, but even more so are the men who climb them with 140 pound baskets of salt, dumping them on top and receiving a few coins in their palms each time--and the women at the base of the pyramids who bag and tie the salt in hideously hot and dry climate.

While this group produces much of the money for the locals in their adobe villages, another group produces the food, venturing out in a large boat every morning hopefully to return with nets full of fish, as they have for hundreds of years. There is a strong sense of community that binds these people, and filmmaker Margot Benacerraf, instead of having anyone employ dialogue, follows her subjects with mostly poetic narration and a strong musical soundtrack.

There is actually a conclusion, and how the viewer reacts to it will certainly reflect attitudes toward modernization and the erasure of ancient traditions; this is a remarkably visual film, stunning to look at, whether from the top of a salt pyramid or bending down to a simple grave decorated with seashells in lieu of the flowers which cannot grow in this part of Venezuela. This is a valuable film document of a disappeared occupation; be sure to watch the "extra" which, fifty years later, follows up on some of the original workers.

A Venezuelan documentary about the salt pyramids in a place called Araya and those who made their living there. Trust us, whatever job you're doing right now, it is nothing compared to what these people have to put up with. They toil from day to night, with little payment and in the scorching sun. They were resigned to their fate since childhood and it is the only thing they know. The director chose to shoot like a fly on the wall (in this case, on a salt pyramid) what they actually do in a day. After you watch this, you'll appreciate your job and life like you never did before. It is an affirmation of the human ability to take on what seems impossible and turn it into an amazing possibility. The cinematography in black and white was illuminating too. Take a chance and give this a try. You won't regret it and might even learn a thing or two about human being's indomitable perseverance.

So the second film I have seen at the 2009 London Film Festival, was bizarrely (for a film made in 1959), the UK premiere. This movie played at Cannes in 1959, but since then pretty much disappeared, at least in the English language world. It's a Venezuelan film, made by a lady called Margot Benacerraf, she made this and one other film before ceasing film-making entirely and entering into the cultural bureaucracy of Venezuela, founding for example the Cinemateca Nacional.

The film is shot on the peninsula of Araya, which is basically dead land abutting onto a salt marsh and then the sea. The land doesn't support anything, there's practically no rainfall, most of the land is not much different from baked bones and dust. There is in one part of the peninsula what is described as a forest, but is too puny too justify that term, arid brittle branches primordially struggling to live. For the inhabitants of the peninsula this is their only supply of wood.

So in Araya, there are only really two professions, you're either a fisherman or a salinero (salt miner). The salineros cut mine from the salt marshes and bring it to the shore, they get 50 cents for a 140 pound basket of salt, which they have to crush to a powder and clean. They do all this without the aid of machinery. Because salt is toxic when handled day in day out they often get ulcers all down their exposed skin.

It's a very simple monotonous life, and whole families are involved in the human conveyor process of bringing the Arayan salt to where it can be loaded for delivery.

It's shot very well, and very poetically, there's also a voice-over that follows the movie the whole way through. I think the voice-over occasionally became more sombre and poetical than the subject matter demanded. I think there's also an extent where it's a false documentary, at least I was feeling suspicious about that, it seems a lot of the scenes are being done for the camera. They film the entire movie almost without reference to machinery, only to have it appear quite conspicuously at the end. So the movie well may have been shot as a time capsule to preserve the way of life that had gone before pre-machinery and was coming to an end. It would be better I think if they had maybe more conspicuously framed it like that at the start. That's a little unfair, I mean the way they did it was good, but it felt deceptive.

Whilst some of the poetry is a little overwrought, there was a great moment where this woman, who was in charge of the scales had her eyes described as being hard and bright like the salt, and then when she is back in the pueblo, they are soft and bright. The poet got that spot on, her eyes did look exactly like that.

The way the cemetery is decorated in the movie is really poignant as well. So I think this film is well worth watching. It has recently been restored by Milestone, and I think there is a fundraising effort going on in the US at the moment, lead by Margot Benacerraf (still alive!). It may well be released on DVD by Milestone in R1 over the next couple of years.

"Araya" is a movie that makes you want to cry... it is so beautiful in its black and white and its simpleness that it's an equivalent of Neorealism but without the sadness. This movie shared the Cannes Award with none other than "Hiroshima, mon amour", althought it has had less luck in becoming a well known film. Its director founded the Cinemateca Nacional (a place where one can see many good old movies) and is also President of Fundavisual Latina, so although she hasn't directed anyome she continues to work on cinema.

Stunning black and white cinematography, and a documentary that truly transported me into the rugged lives of the Venezuelan laborers on the Araya peninsula, who mined the sea for salt for 450 years in much the same way we see here. The work is under scorching conditions and frankly pretty brutal, but every family member has their task and diligently performs it, day in and day out. The film takes a 'poetic realism' approach to the depiction, which has the benefit of the narrator taking the larger view of it all and imbuing it with a wonderful sense of grace. It has the disadvantage that questions we might ask are left out, such as where these people get their clothes or corn, and perhaps more importantly, what they themselves feel about their lives, what their hopes and dreams are, and what their views are of the modernization we see looming in the final few minutes (but unfortunately not expanded on). In short, it would have been nice to hear them speak. Despite that, it's a real work of art, unique and with images that will stay with me. It's a damn shame that director Margot Benacerraf did not make more films, because she really knocked it out of the park with this one.