A ciel ouvert

“I like this story a lot”, says the woman after reading about David’s battle with Goliath. The struggle of the earthen pot against the iron pot is a little her own, and her family’s, the Kollas, abandoned by the Argentine government and chased off their lands so that the multinational, Silver Standard, can operate its open-cast silver mine. In the villages, Silver Standard’s PRs (dynamic women with dazzling smiles, and a Judas’ kiss to boot) prepare the ground with a well-rehearsed discourse on regional development and environmental protection. Underlying these bitter negotiations is the clash between two irreconcilable conceptions of the world. On one side, an earth that is no more than a substance to be mined and. on the other, a goddess, Pacha Mama, immense under the skies. Mother Earth, the main ever-present character gives Iñes Compan’s film its inspiration and its setting. (Yann Lardeau)