14 KILOMETERS

• Adoum Moussa
• Illiassou Mahamadou Alzouma
• Aminata Kanta

The second fiction film by prestigious documentary filmmaker Gerardo Olivares, which was awarded the Golden Sprig at the Valladolid Seminci. The 14 kilometers in the title of this movie correspond to the distance separating Africa from Europe through the Straits of Gibraltar, the distance that divides the third world from the first: the last barrier that three sub-Saharan immigrants must overcome after an exhausting journey through Mali, Niger, Algeria, and Morocco. Using a naturalistic and straightforward style, the director creates an authentic and uncompromising portrayal of the daily reality in the continent.

Three people looking for a better life become stranded in the desert with little hope of survival. Buba is an auto repairman living in Niger with his brother Mukela. Their village is mired in poverty, and given Buba’s talent as a football player, they decide to travel to Spain, where they believe Buba might have a shot at playing as a professional. Enroute, Buba and Mukela meet Violeta, a teenage girl from Mali who is escaping an arranged marriage with a man she hates. During the trip in to Algeria, the three begin to have doubts about the smugglers, and their fears become reality when they’re dumped in the desert fourteen kilometres from their destination. Buba, Mukela and Violeta are told that they’re only a four hour walk away from their destination, but without navigation tools they finds themselves lost in the sandy plains with no idea of how to make their way to civilization.