Synopsis
The life of a fishing family in the inland delta of the Niger River in Mali is upended by the effects of globalization: rising fuel and staple food prices, the fishing crisis, and climate change.
The film is threaded with questions about intergenerational transmission, about the relationship to history and memory in a region where traces of the beginning of things still endure.
A word from Tënk
On the banks of this waterway, where a fragment of humanity has settled, Sékou, his wife, and their children speak to us of the erosion of the land, of their own wear and tear, and of that so-called light brought by the Whites which has ultimately cast a shadow over their lives. Working tirelessly on these waters that once sustained them so generously, their empty nets now betray the fact that its bounty has run dry—and that without these precious resources, human beings are nothing.
Sylvain L’Espérance takes his time and gives time to these people from the delta. The filmmaker’s gaze is attentive. His listening is sensitive and delicate, lingering on the sounds of the water, the wind, the ghosts that return with the storms. Intérieurs du delta is marked by a careful attention to the details of reality, bearing witness to human resilience—in words and in gestures. Here, the testimonies unfold at length, leaving ample space for the musicality of language, for expressions and turns of phrase rooted in a specific place, revealing that language carries within it both the means of survival and a lineage that also bears the weight of tradition.
Khoa Lê
Filmmaker
