Having won major awards at the Cannes, Munich and San Sebastian film festivals, and snagging an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature, The Salt Of The Earth has already built a reputation ahead of its Australian release. The documentary follows the story of Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, tracking the artist through his work in various parts of the world.
The film employs a very self-conscious documentary style in telling Salgado’s story. Directed by German filmmaker Wim Wenders, along with Sebastião’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, The Salt Of The Earth looks not only at Sebastião’s life, but at his relationships with each of these men, and with the documentary itself.
Salgado’s life and work are fascinating and engaging throughout the film. Wenders chooses to follow Salgado’s life through his work in quite a visceral way, projecting the photos themselves over Salgado’s face as he provides context through commentary. This approach really helps to draw the viewer into Salgado’s experience, and is quite affecting at times, particularly when moving through his work surrounding famine in Africa. It also provides an opportunity for the viewer to experience a broad range of Salgado’s photography, which is truly breathtaking.
The Salt Of The Earth is a very beautiful film, even while shining a light on some incredibly dark periods in humanity’s recent history. It’s also a very personal story, and seems to show the effect that the brutality inherent in humanity can have – not only on nations, as is depicted through the photography, but on Salgado himself. Salgado’s recent shift to nature-based photography is shown almost as a retreat from this brutality, and an understandable one after what he has seen and experienced.
4/5 stars
The Salt Of The Earth opens in cinemas on Thursday April 9.
