My Name Is Salt
Beautifully shot in an unforgiving desert in Gujarat, Farida Pacha’s narrative-less doc unspools at a meditative pace, following a family of salt harvesters rhythmically raking and trampling the razor-sharp crystals on the baking earth for an eight-month stint (and very little pay), before the monsoons wash the salt fields away and transform the Little Rann of Kutch into sea once more.
In this desolate landscape, they may as well be farming on the moon. This is an immersive and determinedly non-preachy portrait of generation-spanning ritual and steadfast dedication.
Ali Caterall