Eva van Tongeren

While separating peanuts from their shells, the women in a collective in Agadez, Niger, talk to each other about the men passing by and the filmmaker being present. Focusing on their working hands, the camera reveals the harsh conditions of these women’s daily lives.

In this filmic essay set in a sleepy holiday village in the North of France, the filmmaker takes the viewer on her personal search for peace and quietness. She uses the camera as a tool to try and form an understanding of her surroundings. Her walks are accompanied by a dialogue between the filmmaker and an actress, reflecting on hope, changes, borders and film.

For months Eva Van Tongeren maintains a correspondence with the convicted and incarcerated paedophile Thomas. With a voice-over she reflects upon his thoughts and how their atrociousness resonates through her daily life. Despite her unchanging incomprehension she seeks the limits of her empathy and tries to find ways to deal with such a loaded subject. As it proves to be impossible to make a connection she looks for something that does bind them. This brings her to the American landscape surrounding Death Valley, a place Thomas always wanted to visit. The filmmaker sends him fragments of quiet landscapes and memories that will never be his.

Agadez, a desert city in northern Niger, is weighed down by geopolitical interests and the harsh European border policy. The filmmaker weaves testimonies of three courageous women who each, in their own way, try to confront this reality. They speak about their work, their role in the community, and how they put solidarity into practice. Their inspiring stories offer a glimpse of a feminism that is not theoretical, but rooted in everyday life—a feminism that is truly practiced and lived.