Cinema
These Hands
Flora M'mbugu-Schelling · 1992
Synopsis
An open-air quarry on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam. Women from Mozambique break stone there with hand hammers, from sunrise to sunset, to produce the gravel that will make the city's concrete. They carry baskets on their heads, watch the children between blows, prepare the meal on the spot and sing to keep going. The camera stays with them for a whole day, without commentary, and lets the sound of the hammers fill all the space.
Context
The director had already made a documentary on the education of women. Here she refuses all commentary and explanation: no voice-over, no title card, no interview, only gestures, conversations among the women workers, in Kimakonde and Swahili, and the din of tools, until the last minutes when a written note finally tells the viewer who these women are and for how little they work. The title is borrowed from verses she had written herself. The film runs forty-five minutes and has since been the subject of academic studies, which rank it among the forgotten classics of African cinema.
Who it is for
Three quarters of an hour, with no plot and no explanatory speech, and the same gesture repeated from one end to the other. You have to accept the duration: it is what produces the meaning.
Prizes and reception
Joris Ivens Prize and Prix de Pérouges among other awards; it is the most widely shown Tanzanian documentary outside the country.