«The sun has overcome every fence, and no arrow can reach it.» This is a saying, a deeply wise one, from the Wodaabe, a semi-nomad tribe dwelling the Sahara desert this documentary is on.
Their way of life is covered and exposed with something that defining abundance of detail and care would still be not satisfactory, as passion is involved and, like always, passion is the sole explanation to itself. Members of the tribe are customarily made marry at an age of around 10; however, there is freedom of choice to the marital matter unknown to our self-defining «advanced» societies: partition from one's spouse is allowed for both genders, and wives frequently exercise it; furthermore, when the love feast comes every woman can pick a young man to couple with for the night.
Beauty and making-up (some derived by liquid from exhausted torch batteries), as well as ritual feasts, play a cardinal role, the sole distractions from the fatigue of every day. {mettere dove? Rain, and terrain fertility, are vital for survival.} Such vainness among a population feeling few needs and leading a natural, unsophisticated life, seem to indicate vainness be a constitutive trait of the human kind.
Herzog's approach to cultures distant from the West's ones is his methodical, lucid yet fresh interest, the outcome of it being a dynamic, effective report, that catches the spirit, and traces back the very root, of far and away civilizations. So, after a ceremony has been completed, the Wodaabe are inquired on their next destination. the answer is that they don't know yet: they are simply going to follow the route their cattle will take.
{I skipped 2 or 3 minutes of the documentary, where an animal is slayed, which I strongly believe had better not be featured in this motion picture.}
Their way of life is covered and exposed with something that defining abundance of detail and care would still be not satisfactory, as passion is involved and, like always, passion is the sole explanation to itself. Members of the tribe are customarily made marry at an age of around 10; however, there is freedom of choice to the marital matter unknown to our self-defining «advanced» societies: partition from one's spouse is allowed for both genders, and wives frequently exercise it; furthermore, when the love feast comes every woman can pick a young man to couple with for the night.
Beauty and making-up (some derived by liquid from exhausted torch batteries), as well as ritual feasts, play a cardinal role, the sole distractions from the fatigue of every day. {mettere dove? Rain, and terrain fertility, are vital for survival.} Such vainness among a population feeling few needs and leading a natural, unsophisticated life, seem to indicate vainness be a constitutive trait of the human kind.
Herzog's approach to cultures distant from the West's ones is his methodical, lucid yet fresh interest, the outcome of it being a dynamic, effective report, that catches the spirit, and traces back the very root, of far and away civilizations. So, after a ceremony has been completed, the Wodaabe are inquired on their next destination. the answer is that they don't know yet: they are simply going to follow the route their cattle will take.
{I skipped 2 or 3 minutes of the documentary, where an animal is slayed, which I strongly believe had better not be featured in this motion picture.}