El Mar La Mar | Bodies of the Desert

El Mar La Mar

D: Joshua Bonnetta, J.P. Sniadecki, USA 2017, 94 min, OV with English subtitles

The sun beats down mercilessly on all those who cross the Sonoran Desert between Mexico and the United States. Aside from the few people who live here, it’s the poorest of undocumented immigrants that make the crossing, who have no choice but to take this extremely dangerous route, followed by border guards both official and self-appointed. El Mar la Mar weaves together 16-mm shots of nature and weather phenomena, animals, people and the tracks they leave behind with a polyphonic soundtrack, creating a cinematographic exploration of the desert habitat, a multi-faceted panorama of a highly politicised stretch of land, a film poem that conjures up the ocean. (Hanna Keller, abridged)