COMBAT BREATHING: POSTSCRIPTS OF MODERNITY, PART 2: AMUSSU (2019)
Directed by Nadir Bouhmouch
100 minutes
The people of the Moroccan village of Imider may live alongside the largest silver mine in Africa, but they have reaped few of its benefits. The mine's encroachment upon their communal life has rendered their existence increasingly precarious, contributing to water scarcity and threatening the community's almond orchards, oasis, and traditional ways of life. In 2011, the villagers responded by shutting down a pipeline supplying water to the mine and establishing a protest camp around it, inaugurating a struggle that would last to this day. Rather than centering scenes of confrontation, arrest, intimidation, and police violence, which are all part of the fight against the infrastructures of this pipeline, AMUSSU turns its attention to the everyday life, resilience, and creativity of those who sustain the struggle. Conceived as a participatory filmic project, AMUSSU was produced through collective decision-making guided by the community's Agraw protocol, while community members not only learned to operate film equipment but also participated directly in filming. In this sense, the film constitutes both a formal and methodological intervention into the practice of radical independent cinema. Years after the initial uprising, the protest camp has evolved into a small, largely self-sufficient community, where music, theater, poetry, and other artistic practices have emerged as a revolutionary vernacular. These forms of expression do more than accompany the struggle, as they become part of its infrastructure, sustaining collective memory, solidarity, and an ongoing demand for land, water, and a life lived with dignity.