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Clip description
A truck with equipment rolls through a quiet village, followed by more trucks stirring up the dust. A villager quarrels with mine workers about who’s benefiting from the mine. A truck with very wide load crashes through on the narrow road, breaking off tree branches in the village.
Curator’s notes
The first shot in this clip is stunning and sobering. The culture clash is right up front here. The length of the shot gives a viewer plenty of time to contemplate what this all means to the villagers that are seen as small figures in the background. There is an argument that takes place when a villager complains about the trucks blocking the road. The mine employees are trying to convince him that they have priority because they are there to benefit Guinea and for the benefit of the state. The villager sardonically replies, ‘Which state?’. The verbal exchange is spoken in French, which is the lingua franca of Guinea although most people from the villages in the area of the mine speak Malinke as their first language.
