14 Kilometers

January 17th, 2010

Violeta, a teen who lives in a riverside village in Mali, has only an arranged marriage with a lascivious old man to look forward to, and decides to run off to a faraway place. Meanwhile, in neighboring Niger, mechanic Buba is a skilled soccer player. His brother Mukela suggests he should try his skills in Europe. Violeta meets the two boys when they’re all loaded on a large truck, with many others, in central Niger. The route is across the pitiless expanse of the Tenere desert toward Morocco, via Algeria. They’re dropped off in the desert a four-hour walk from Tamanrasset, in southern Algeria, but end up going round in circles, and the horrors begin to mount.

Ambitiously re-creating the journey from west Sub-Saharan Africa to Spain by three would-be immigrants, “14 Kilometers” is honest in its portrayal of physical and psychological stress and in its refusal to craft a well-rounded plot from real-life horrors. Ultimately, however, pic is a numbing litany of humiliations that only intermittently explores or communicates the tragedy beneath its suspiciously good looks. Presumably for its laudable intentions rather than its patchy execution, pic took the top film prize at Spain’s Valladolid fest in October, and further festival prospects look good in Europe.