International Film - The Source

    

A Look at the

Politics of Water in a Desert Community

     Empowerment of women to facilitate change in a struggling community is the theme of the film, The Source. Co-written by Alain-Michael Blanc and Radu Milhaileanu (also the director), the film is set in a contemporary Arabian village that still adheres to traditional values and culture. The community has no running water, and it is the task of the women to walk through miles of rough terrain to obtain water from their local source, a remote well, and then carry it back in large containers to their village. Even pregnant women are expected to engage in this arduous task. When one of the young women, in the later stages of pregnancy, falls while taking water back for her family, and as a result, has a miscarriage, Leila (played by Leila Bekht), one of the young educated women in the village, calls upon the women to demand a change.

     With assistance from Fatima (actess, Hiam Abass), one of the matriarchs of the village, the women embark upon a "love strike" and decide to withhold sex from their husbands until they take action to make the necessary provisions to have water piped into the village. The men say two years have passed since they applied to the state for running water, but to date, nothing has been done toward it development. Many of the women do not want to get involved in the strike because they say it has been the tradition for women to bring water to the village since the beginning of time. The cries of one of the young women are heard throughout the village when she is beaten nightly by her husband as he attempts to force her to have relations with him. News about the women's demand spread around the country and beyond, and it eventually gains international attention.

 The Source premiered at the Cannes Film Festival

 and is scheduled for international release in November 2011.

    
     A sub-plot revolves around Leila's relationship with the village, her husband, Sami (actor Saleh Bakri) and her former fiancee, a journalist who has returned to his native land under the guise of doing research for a magazine article. However, he has actually returned to the village to find Leila, a matter about which Leila is troubled because her husband knows nothing about her former relationship, and in fact, believes she was a virgin when they married. As the women's strike gains momentum and the community becomes more polarized, the journalist, because of his love for Leila, reluctantly begins to chronicle the story.

     Despite some of Sami's liberal views and apparent rejections of certain traditional values, he as earned a position of high esteem with the elder men and he Shiek because he is a college educated man who has returned home to teach, and he has developed positive relationships with the children of the village. The men have tried to accept Leila as Sami's wife, but her refusal to embrace the traditional role prescribed for women, and her position as the outspoken leader of the women's strike have negatively impacted their views of her. Sami is conflicted because he feels the women are advocating for a just cause and he wants to support his wife, but he does not want to directly oppose the men. Their marriage is further tested once he learns of Leila's former relationship.

    Set against the backdrop of the rugged terrain of the Arabian Desert, The Source has a tighly woven plot revolving around the political, social, and cultural issues impacting a arid community's struggle to acquire water . It compels viewers to examine the affects of poverty in underdeveloped areas of the world and the resulting lack of infrastructure. It brings to the forefront, problems compounded by the growing need for potable water.

     According to the April 2010 issue of National Geographic, entitled Water, Our Thirsty World, "46 percent of people on earth do not have water piped to their homes..." "Women in developing countries walk an average of 3.7 miles to get water.

     In northern Kenya, women may spend as much as five hours a day transporting heavy containers of water on foot. Currently, ten million people in the East African countries Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Somalia are affected by the worst drought the area has experienced in 60 years, though there has  been a steady decrease in rainfall over the past ten years. Crop failures and food shortages have caused many Somalians to seek Sanctuary in the Kenyan refugee camp, Dadaab, where more than 380,000 people are depending on resources intended for 90,000 (CNN World Report, July 8, 2011).

    
     Water, referred to in National Geographic as "the earth's most vital resource," without which no living thing can survive, is becoming increasingly less abundant. "In 15 years, 1.8 billion people will live in regions of severe water scarcity." The way in which water is used on planet earth will have to undergo change because right now, aquifers are being drained more rapidly than they are being replenished.

      For more information about what you can do to help in drought-stricken ares consult: http://www.worldvision.org/. Following are global organizations working to provide clean water in developing countries and drought stricken areas: http://www.waterforpeople.org/; http://www.wateradvocates.org/; http://www.globalwaterchallenge.org/; http://www.globalwaterinitiative.com/; and http://www.psi.org/ (Population Services International, involved in combating waterborne diseases).