The Salt of the Earth (2014)
Le sel de la terre
Film details
Documentary · Juliano Ribeiro Salgado · 1h 50min
Synopsis
During the last forty years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever-changing humanity. He has witnessed the major events of our recent history: international conflicts, starvations and exodus… He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of the wild fauna and flora, of grandiose landscapes: a huge photographic project which is a tribute to the planet's beauty. Salgado's life and work are revealed to us by his son, Juliano, who went with him during his last journeys, and by Wim Wenders, a photographer himself.
Verdict
Contemplative visual testimony on human dignity and the beauty of the planet.
In-depth analysis
The Salt of the Earth is a documentary of significant scope on the life and work of Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, directed by Wim Wenders and the protagonist's son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. For four decades, Salgado has rigorously documented visually the human condition at its extremes: famines, wars, mass exoduses, labor exploitation. His camera does not sensationalize pain — it bears witness to it with dignity. The documentary explores his photographic archive and is constructed as a visual essay on art's capacity to gaze upon suffering without falling into sensationalism. The narrative shift occurs when Salgado, exhausted by decades of documenting genocides and tragedies, undertakes the project 'Génesis': a tribute to the planet's last pristine territories, a search for beauty after the abyss. In parallel, he and his wife reforest 700 hectares of degraded jungle in Brazil, transforming a desert into a forest. It is an arc of visual redemption: from the documentation of evil to the contemplation of good, from denunciation to hope. For parents: the images of conflicts, refugees, and famines are impactful because they are real. They are not fiction — they are historical testimonies treated with respect. It requires emotional maturity from the viewer, but there is no ideological agenda or manipulation. It is serious, humanist, and hopeful documentary cinema.