About Water

Directed by Udo Maurer

Review by Roberto Azula

There is much in common between Udo Maurer’s About Water and Yung Chang’s brilliant Up The Yangtze. Both filmmakers take great pains to create a seemingly hands-free cinema verite, resulting in works of art that are far more moving and provocative than any politically charged screed. Simple and unpretentious, About Water examines the lives of people whose lives have been affected by water-based catastrophes.

About Water is a remarkably consistent film, even with its three chapters (the river delta of Bangladesh, the arid wasteland of Kazakhstan, and the slums of Nairobi). If I have to pick my “favorite” of the three (a rather grim task given the material), I would have to choose the part set in Kazakhstan. The ships rusting in the middle of arid wastelands are some of the most ghostly and beguiling images I have ever seen. Maurer cleverly inserts sequences of Soviet propaganda films extolling the glories of the irrigation projects that eventually destroyed the Aral Sea. The local projectionist who plays these absurd films does not engage in any witty or sardonic commentary; his utterly resigned expression says enough.

After witnessing all three chapters, I gained a keen, and very depressing, appreciation of the daily grind of people whose lives are tyrannized by water. The camera moves about unimpeded through grime and despair, yet this is not a film to induce guilt or put forth opinions. It depicts the simple realities of life in these countries, and lets you form your impressions from there. The people in the film display a strength and dignity that is simply beyond the comprehension of those who glide through life with a sense of entitlement, bitching about their soft lives. But I guarantee that if you ever see About Water, you will never take your running water and dry home for granted ever again.