Tara

Tara is the name of a small river on the edge of the southern Italian port town of Taranto. The documentary of the same name by Volker Sattel and Francesca Bertin initially lingers at its banks, showing idyllic scenes of people young and old bathing there, the wind in the grass, a shrine to the Virgin Mary in the reeds and plants filmed underwater. The local people say that the water has magical healing powers, a legend involving a donkey is also woven around the “river of fortune”. Gradually the panorama expands to include the neighboring factory chimneys, contaminated water samples, the construction of a gigantic local steelworks in the 60s, a dump containing poisonous waste and the ancient history of the area, focusing above all, however, on the people who don’t give up in the run-down industrial town and challenge the injustice and decline with their ideas and initiatives. A calm account of the failure of the promises of progress and possible resistance thus comes into focus almost in passing via visually striking images. (Birgit Kohler)