The High Dam at Aswan

1992 • Directed by

Borhane Alaouié

This is Egypt and one of its symbols, Sad Al-Ali, the massive wonder that is the high dam of Aswan. With a first-person narrative in a soft, husky voice, the film explores the memory of the Nile Valley to tell the story of Lake Nasser and the ecological and human consequences of this construction. Floods caused by the Ethiopian rains spread the silt and evacuated the algae. The order of nature was disrupted, the salt rose and cracked the earth, the crops burned. Sea water reached the water tables. The Nubians fled the valley engulfed by the waters, leaving behind their villages and their culture. Twenty-five years after the construction of the dam, there is no longer any coherence between the lower valley and the Nile. The city of Cairo has expanded, a heterogeneous development where human pollution overflows. The film is a bitter reflection on a lost human philosophy, a dialogue constantly renewed with the land and its river.