The Salt of the Earth – Movie Review by Frank L.

Directed by Wim Wenders and Julian Ribeiro Salgado

Sebastian Salgado is a photographer who has been inspired to make his photographs from material which is often deeply unsettling even if the quality of his photographs creates a beautiful but uncomfortable image. A fine early example of this skill was the series of photographs he made of a vast open cast mine in Brazil where the thousands of loin-clad men were like ants as they crawled in a gargantuan hole in pursuit of gold. The images seemed to come from a different era or epoch.

Salgado recorded this extraordinary manual work and was able to see, given the size of the earth works, a parallel with the pyramids of ancient Egypt. He and his camera were to undertake many further foreign escapades into remote, awkward and hostile locations so much so that his son rarely saw him as a child. Throughout Salgado has been supported and inspired in his endeavours by his wife, Lelia Wanick Salgado, who when asked about the saying in English “Behind every successful man is a woman” replied “No, I don’t agree with that. She is not behind him. She is by his side next to him. We have to be very clear about that.”

This documentary is testament to that statement as Leila plays a prominent role throughout. She is, of course, the mother of Julian who co-directs this masterpiece with Wim Wenders who is of the same generation as Sebastian. The result of these various collaborations is that Wim Wenders and Julian Ribeiro Salgado have created a documentary about Sebastian Salgado which highlights his love of his fellow man, his despair of the savagery of the human species and the magnificence of this planet notwithstanding man’s violent contempt of it. And throughout is the central role of Leila in his endeavours. There is a matter of factness about the birth of their second child Daniel, who was born, with Down’s syndrome. The directness is a comfort. Sebastian and Leila notwithstanding the mounting years do not rest on their laurels. They have returned to his family homestead in Brazil where their love of this planet has found a new endeavour to help restore the land following the damage which man has reeked in pursuit of short term financial gain. The conversion of brown parched earth to thriving green nascent forest is uplifting.

Given the subject matter of Sebastian’s earlier work some of the images are deeply disturbing but that is the result of the appalling manner in which humans are capable of treating other humans. What stands out is the strength of Sebastian and Leila. Although unexpressed they are entitled to have immense pride in their son, Julian, for his part in bringing to fruition this jewel.