Air dan Romi

Images of life on the river. Men push rafts on the water using poles, women wash clothes and dishes in the river water, children are washed, daily body care but also ritual ablutions are witnessed. On the river, the artery of life, everything happens. These daily actions contrast with the images of dirt and garbage accumulated on the banks in front of the huts. Everything depends on the river water, whose ecological status is increasingly a cause for alarm.

The film documents the living and working conditions of three men and their families who depend on the river: one is a water vendor, another is an ice vendor, and the third cleans the river.

Romi, the cleaner, has dug a well for his family but the water is not drinkable. So he too is forced to buy water for drinking and cooking. Romi works hard. The river is deep and he dives into it up to his neck and pushes garbage onto the bank. Often dead animals surface, and from time to time, even a human corpse. Sometimes Romi cuts himself and suffers from nausea and migraine. But he sees no other way to feed his wife and family.

All the families seen in the film face a daily struggle for survival.

How can the men earn enough money for their families and overcome the fear of the repeated destruction of their homes in slum areas? In the face of these dangers, the threat posed by dirty, undrinkable water seems to take a back seat.

From the series: Humans and the Environment distributed by the Goethe Institut.