In the spring of 2014 Eloy Domínguez lived and worked during two months in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. During his staying in the Wilaya of Boujdour he had the assignment of working as a volunteer teacher at EFA Abidin Kaid Saleh (Sahara Film School), where he taught a module in director and filmmaking for eight weeks.
"After work I used to go for long walks around the wilaya, in which I would usually engage in conversation with my new neighbours. Some of them could speak Spanish or English and some of them not (unfortunately I don't speak Arabic or Hassaniya), but we could always manage to communicate in one way or another", explains the director. Yellow Brick Road, the film projected at The Wall in may 2016, depicts one of these coincidental and fortunate encounters.
"I became quickly fascinated by the enthralling, powerful and omnipotent presence of cars in the camps; not only the vehicles that still remain operational, but also those that, after breaking down, stay still 'with their families'. On one free afternoon I decided to go out and film these wrecked but majestic cars, which I did for a couple of hours, but while I was shooting an old truck, a curious, spirited and sharp little boy showed up in the frame and transformed irrevocably the course of events. In those days I was reading Ryszard Kapuściński's The Shadow of the Sun, which I had got from a Sahrawi friend. In this book the Polish journalist and traveller invites the reader to 'encounter the Other', to reach an understanding with him and discover within ourselves a fragment of him. I like to believe that somehow this short film is reflects my desire to encounter and understand the 'Other', to share a moment of cheerfulness and closeness with him (with them, Hamdi and Ali, in this case)", says Domínguez.
Film by Eloy Domínguez, shot while he lived and worked during two months in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria.