Far from the Villages Oliver Zuchaut

“I personally saw the victims being lowered into the ground”, a man says into the camera. Oliver Zuchaut’s Far from the Villages portrays life in the Djabel refugee camp located in eastern Chad. This improvised settlement holds an estimated 13 000 people who fled their villages in Darfur to escape massacre at the hands of Janjaweed gunmen.

Long tracking sequences along the camp perimeter establish your status as an outsider, and extended pans of the stark landscape provide space to contemplate the despair. You overhear women discussing their lost men, the meagreness of NGO food, and the danger that comes with leaving the camp to search for firewood.

Eschewing cinematic devices, Zuchuat‘s camera does not intrude or editorialize. There is no musical soundtrack, voiceover narrative, or scrolling expository text. There are no close-ups. As an observer, you are not invited to participate.

Occasionally, individuals directly address the camera. One man reads a roll call of those killed in the slaughter of his village, reading deliberately from his journal. In a final sequence, a young boy shares his drawings. The crayon figures depict men with guns, bodies, and bleeding victims. He sings: “Heed no one’s rule, let’s go and join the self defence militias now.” The torch has been passed, and you have borne witness.

Robert Byrne