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ABRAHAM & SARAH. CREATORS OF A PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE [Abstract ID: 1203-09]
In the highlands of Tigray - northern Ethiopia - on the edge of the escarpment that descends steeply to the Danakil dessert, Hagos Mashisho and Desta Gidey have toiled and struggled for years to turn the rugged slopes of the East African Rift Valley into fertile ground. They have grown crops here not only to feed themselves and their family, but also to share with others, in particular the pilgrims who regularly pass by on their way to the monastery of Gundagundo. Touched by the kindness of their hosts, the pilgrims have given them the biblical names "Abraham" and "Sarah". The film explores the work ethos and grace of these Tigrean farmers: the cheerful mood with which they do what needs to be done; the devotedness to the tasks at hand; the coordinated movements of humans and animals as they work when ploughing, sowing, harvesting, threshing; - and finally those moments of invocation when the dependence on nature and the transcendent are acknowledged.
In terms of cinematography "Abraham & Sarah" exemplifies the resonance and synergy between people in front and behind the camera that Jean Rouch called 'cine-trance'. This becomes visible again and again in situations such as when Sarah and Abraham cut the wheat, when their sons thresh the barley, when the itinerant fiddler plays and sings his tune, when the neighbours rebuild the washed-away terrace, and ? as a kind of climax ? when Abraham ploughs his field. "Abraham & Sarah" is the first film in a series entitled "Guardians of productive landscapes" currently produced under the auspices of the Department of Integration and Conflict at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany. It can be seen as a contribution to an applied anthropology that tunes in with the rising awareness that rapidly increasing environmental degradation threatens the earth. Humanity is at the crossroads where life as we know it will soon collapse unless we muster all our ingenuity for inward and outward persuasion to find ways to overcome the current crisis.
The series aims to help in this rhetorical venture. It urges the global public to re-think and reform the relationship that until now has prevailed between subsistence and capitalist economies on our planet. Today, an estimated one and a half billion people practise subsistence agriculture that produces about fifty per cent of the domestic food consumed in the developing world. "Abraham & Sarah" shows how such a mode of production involves only human and animal labour, and only local resources. Being non-poisoning, non-destructive, bio-diverse, and sustainable it makes an invaluable contribution to the preservation of the biosphere. In the light of this, "Abraham & Sarah" may lead audiences to better appreciate the positive role of these "guardians of productive landscapes" and help to establish the foundation for new policy initiatives that treat these subsistence farmers as partners in a joint struggle to save the endangered planet.