‘After Tomorrow’ screens in Namibia

AS PART of the Documentary Week at the Franco-Namibia Cultural Centre (FNCC), ‘After Tomorrow’ will premiere for the first time in Namibia this week.

Director of the documentary Toufic Beyhum will be in attendance at the screening, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session as well as a debate.

‘After Tomorrow’ premieres tonight at 18h30.

This event, which is part of Documentary Month organised by Images in Library and the French Institute, is a unique opportunity to understand documentary cinema in its multiplicity, to promote the cultural and artistic diversity of documentaries from around the world, and to make accessible, for all, the singular contribution of the documentary, to enhance our understanding of the world today.

The Bdoul tribe of Petra lived in caves on the heritage site for more than 200 years. Their lives consisted of tending to crops and raising animals. In 1985, the Jordanian government moved the tribe to purpose-built housing in order to accommodate the ever-increasing numbers of tourists flooding into the area.

Directors Beyhum and Carl Gough spent two months living in the Bdoul village of Umm Sayhoun. They came wielding a camera in order to document the lives of the tribe and to witness first-hand how the people have been influenced by tourism, and the capitalist society this has engendered.

For most of the 3 000 tourists who stream through Petra every day, the Bedouin are simply a bunch of friendly folk sitting around and selling trinkets. But they are much more than that, and their story deserves to be told.

‘After Tomorrow’ is not a political story, nor is it a cautionary tale of how capitalism can erode a society’s traditions; it’s simply a slice of life which highlights some of the overlooked aspects of Arabian culture: Good-natured hospitality, generosity of spirit and a light-hearted, emotional outlook on life.

The movie has won the award for Best Reportage Tourism at the Serbian Film Festival, and was nominated at the Tripoli Film Festival. It was very well received in Amman at the Jordanian Film Commission, and in Bordeaux at the Arc en Reve Centre d’Architecture. This will be the movie’s African premiere.

Documentary Week has been running from 21 November and will end tomorrow, 24 November.