(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
From the film's initial 360 degree panning, it is clear that Welcome to Sodom takes place in a landscape that could have been a recording site for one Mad Max-film. But this is not fiction: The documentary depicts the world's largest garbage dump for electronics, located outside Ghana's capital, Accra. The actual name of the filling is Agbogbloshie, but by the residents it is referred to as "Sodom". The extremely poisonous area – which even lies on an old swamp – is not a place one would think anyone could live. Nevertheless, Sodom is home to around 6 000 men, women and children, who feed on the electronic wreckage that fills the bulky rubbish dump. From this, they extract copper, zinc, iron, and other materials that can be sold to dealers in Sodom.
Apparently, Agbogbloshie is the site of our scrapped mobile phones, computers, refrigerators and similar most likely ports in the end: Every year, 250 000 tons of electronic waste are sent here to be cut down – and in part recycled to new values for the heaped poor population. But Welcome to Sodom is not a movie that pepper the viewer with numbers, facts and talking expert minds. Instead, it follows the documentary tradition of zooming in on a select few representatives of a micro-community, and with it reflecting on global issues. (Incidentally, there were also previously made films about other "garbage dumping", with Brazilian Waste Land from 2010 as probably the best known.)
Rank Studies
The striking post-apocalyptic tone is effectively set by a revival preacher who proclaims human perdition and sin. But while drawing parallels to biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, the film's title is taken from one of the songs of a young rapper who records music in and about Sodom, in sequences that help to provide uplifting insight into the challenging life of garbage dung. .
A thought-provoking warning about a non-sustainable world order.
The two characters that make the deepest impression are a young girl whose whole life has felt like a boy, and a doctor educated, gay man. She dresses up as the opposite sex to perform work reserved for boys and men, while fleeing persecution because of her orientation. Thus, the film also looks at the country's (and religion's) attitude to gender and sexuality, and shows how Sodom can serve as a refuge for persecuted individuals.
However, there is little doubt that the vast majority of Sodom wants a better life elsewhere, and the dream of Europe in particular is strong in many of them. This is most effectively visualized in a sequence where two younger men browse through the images on a scrapped mobile phone, showing the former proprietor – a white European or American – in all his wealth and holiday family happiness.
One can certainly make a critical point of the film itself being made by two white Europeans. However, it falls to its own unreasonability, all the while Austrian filmmakers Christian Krönes and Florian Weigensamer portray the distinctive African community with a commendable combination of respect and observant presence. In the film, they let the residents tell their stories themselves, while avoiding traditional, static interviews. Instead, we hear the villagers' stories as voice over narration, while the camera follows their daily chores or the rest of Sodom's life.
Not least, the film lets the powerful and occasionally captivating images speak for themselves. For example, almost poetic sequences are created by a young boy who burns electronics to extract copper, where he moves around the dancing, black and unhealthy smoke.
Distress and capitalism
Welcome to Sodom describes a form of recycling based on imperative necessity rather than bad conscience for the environment – how necessary the latter may be in our day. Equally fully, the film serves as a thought-provoking warning of a world order and an over-consumption that is anything but sustainable. The life of Sodom can even be read as a picture of capitalism that largely governs the entire globe, represented here by the eager recyclers of the place – who consider themselves enterprising businessmen. It is first and foremost about earning a living, but with a certain hope of earning a living.
With its distinctly cinematic expression should Welcome to Sodom preferably experienced in a movie theater, where both the pictures and the soundscape (including the aforementioned rap songs) come to their fullest – without me wanting to discourage TV channels from showing it. The film premiered at the Danish documentary film festival CPH: DOX earlier this year, and was screened at the Bergen International Film Festival in September. Hopefully there will also be other Norwegian festival screenings of this documentary, which addresses major and significant issues, based on what one must call a very distinctive micro-community.
