Before the white man travelled along the Celestial Routes, the Tuareg journeyed thousands of miles guided by the stars. For centuries, the Tuareg dominated the commerce and trade route, establishing themselves as the lords of the desert and savannah. The Tuareg caravans, consisting of hundreds of camels, transported salt, sugar, dates, tea, semolina and slaves, tracing the trade routes across the width and length of the vast desert. The film begins in the shade of a solitary acacia under which a “haima” is squatting, while all round lie dozens of camels. An old man picks up a handful of sand and sifts it through his fingers. It is time to leave. In a small room of a Buddhist monastery, two men are deciding whether their caravan should begin its journey with the full moon of May, in ten days’ time. The film is the story of Tashi and Wahid, two men separated by thousands of miles, but both living in inhospitable regions where life is tough. Two isolated and forgotten worlds, with unique customs and traditions of fascinating cultural wealth, are portrayed through these two parallel journeys.
Director
Gerardo Olivares Asbell