23 02 26 IBIZA
15/20 05 26 BARCELONA
SALKA IN NO MAN'S LAND
"Xavi Herrero achieves an immersive and hallucinatory journey through the desert, aboard an industrial train that sails over the sands of the border between Mauritania and Western Sahara.
Salka... is pure and genuine immersion: in a landscape, a journey, and a state of mind. The infernal, noisy clatter of the carriages, the inhospitable yet hallucinatory surroundings, and the combination of anonymous Sahrawi poems—recited by various voice-overs—with a percussive soundtrack that underlines the dystopian and at times almost dreamlike quality of the photographs, turn this journey into a unique, beautiful, and unsettling experience.
Alfonso Rivera (Cineuropa-The Best of European Cinema)
"One might imagine traveling through the Sahara by train as a Zen-like journey. In a way, it is, but it's also a relentless, unremitting assault on the body and the senses... a constant elemental symphony of heat, wind, and noise." - Alastair Gill
You fall, you die. This railway, which routinely transports passengers in a somewhat dangerous manner, has proven quite popular with the more daring exponents of "extreme tourism" like Calvin Sun.
“There are no tickets, no reservations, no cash, no bookings—you’re just supposed to hitch a ride and ride to the top when it arrives!” Sun enthused on his popular blog, The Monsoon Diaries. “The train is all yours since no one cares that you’re here, but if you must explore, be aware that there are no barriers, brakes, or safety measures of any kind. You fall off, you die, and the train keeps going.”
"Such tales are inspiring but, for most, more than a little overwhelming. The next best thing is to experience the journey vicariously in cinematic form through Salka In No Man's Land. This is an intensely poetic 67-minute sensory experience from a documentary by Ibiza-based Catalan director (and director of its film festival) Xavi Herrero."
Neil Young (The European Documentary Magazine)
Los paisajes de un futuro distópico que preveía Mad Max existen hoy, y se encuentran en Mauritania. Allí, Salka decide emigrar a Europa hacia un futuro mejor. Disfrazada de chico, tendrá que cruzar todo el desierto del Sahara sobre el tren más largo del mundo hasta llegar a la costa atlántica. La solitaria travesía por la vasta inmensidad del desierto y el incansable sonido metálico de las vías del tren hace de este viaje, una odisea onírica e hipnótica.
Salka vive en uno de los países más pobres del mundo. Mauritania está aislada del mundo, con grandes desequilibrios sociales, es una tierra árida y sin esperanza para la gran mayoría de la población, donde las mafias y el contrabando imperan con libertad y hacen aún más evidentes las desigualdades y la falta de oportunidades, sobre todo para las mujeres. El director Xavi Herrero, que se ha convertido en el primer occidental en realizar el trayecto de ida y vuelta del tren de la SNIM, conocido como el tren del desierto, se convierte en testigo silencioso del viaje de 1.400km de Salka. Su recorrido, bajo temperaturas que pueden llegar hasta los 50 ° C no está exento de peligros; rodea la denominada "tierra de nadie", una conflictiva zona fronteriza entre Mauritania y el Sahara Occidental, donde las incursiones del ejército marroquí son constantes.
The landscape of a dystopian future that Mad Max predicted exists today, and it is found in Mauritania. There, Salka decides to migrate to Europe for a better future. Disguised as a boy, she will have to cross the entire Sahara Desert on the world's longest train journey to reach the Atlantic coast. The lonely journey through the vast desert and the tireless metallic sound of the train tracks turn this trip into a dreamlike and hypnotic odyssey.
Salka lives in one of the poorest countries in the world. Mauritania is isolated from the world, with great social imbalances, for the great majority of its population it is a barren and hopeless land where mafias and smuggling reign freely and make inequalities and lack of opportunities even more evident, especially for women. Director Xavi Herrero, who has become the first westerner to make the return journey of the SNIM train, known as the desert train, becomes a silent witness to Salka’s 1,400km journey. Its route, under temperatures that can reach up to 50 ° C, is not without dangers; it surrounds the so-called "no man’s land", a conflicting border zone between Mauritania and Western Sahara, where Moroccan army incursions are constant.
FESTIVALES Y MERCADOS:
Berlinale # European Film Market Screenings 2020
Visions du Réel # Media Library Selection 2020
Quinzaine des Realitzateurs Cannes # Shortlist 2020 (Canceled)
Candidatura Premi Amnistia Internacional Catalunya (AIC) 2020
Docs Barcelona # Official Selection # Whats the doc! 2020
Atlántida Film Fest # Official Selection # Muros y Fronteras 2020
Medimed-The Euro-Mediterranean Documentary Market # Videotheque Film Selection 2020
Vladivostok International Film Festival-Pacific Meridian # Official Selection # In Focus 2020
Festival Internacional de Cine por los DDHH (Colombia) # Official Selection 2020
Festival Internacional de Cine con Medios Alternativos (México) # Mejor Largometraje Documental Internacional 2020
Premios de Cine español Independiente Blogos de Oro 2020 # Candidaturas:Película-Dirección-Guión-BSO
Sofia Middle East & North Africa region FIlm Festival (Bulgaria) # Official Selection 2020
Proyección Centro Cultural MVA Málaga 2020
Sanfici Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Santander (Colombia) # Sección oficial largometrajes 2020
CASA Film Arts Festival (Segovia) # Película de clausura 2021
Global Migration Film Festival-OIM Ecuador-ONU # Official Selection 2021
