Araya (1959) User Reviews

Songs and wails from the blasted earth

[oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx · 8/10 · 17 October 2009]

So the second film I have seen at the 2009 London Film Festival, was bizarrely (for a film made in 1959), the UK premiere. This movie played at Cannes in 1959, but since then pretty much disappeared, at least in the English language world. It's a Venezuelan film, made by a lady called Margot Benacerraf, she made this and one other film before ceasing film-making entirely and entering into the cultural bureaucracy of Venezuela, founding for example the Cinemateca Nacional.

The film is shot on the peninsula of Araya, which is basically dead land abutting onto a salt marsh and then the sea. The land doesn't support anything, there's practically no rainfall, most of the land is not much different from baked bones and dust. There is in one part of the peninsula what is described as a forest, but is too puny too justify that term, arid brittle branches primordially struggling to live. For the inhabitants of the peninsula this is their only supply of wood.

So in Araya, there are only really two professions, you're either a fisherman or a salinero (salt miner). The salineros cut mine from the salt marshes and bring it to the shore, they get 50 cents for a 140 pound basket of salt, which they have to crush to a powder and clean. They do all this without the aid of machinery. Because salt is toxic when handled day in day out they often get ulcers all down their exposed skin.

It's a very simple monotonous life, and whole families are involved in the human conveyor process of bringing the Arayan salt to where it can be loaded for delivery.

It's shot very well, and very poetically, there's also a voice-over that follows the movie the whole way through. I think the voice-over occasionally became more sombre and poetical than the subject matter demanded. I think there's also an extent where it's a false documentary, at least I was feeling suspicious about that, it seems a lot of the scenes are being done for the camera. They film the entire movie almost without reference to machinery, only to have it appear quite conspicuously at the end. So the movie well may have been shot as a time capsule to preserve the way of life that had gone before pre-machinery and was coming to an end. It would be better I think if they had maybe more conspicuously framed it like that at the start. That's a little unfair, I mean the way they did it was good, but it felt deceptive.

Whilst some of the poetry is a little overwrought, there was a great moment where this woman, who was in charge of the scales had her eyes described as being hard and bright like the salt, and then when she is back in the pueblo, they are soft and bright. The poet got that spot on, her eyes did look exactly like that.

The way the cemetery is decorated in the movie is really poignant as well. So I think this film is well worth watching. It has recently been restored by Milestone, and I think there is a fundraising effort going on in the US at the moment, lead by Margot Benacerraf (still alive!). It may well be released on DVD by Milestone in R1 over the next couple of years.

Fantastic

[gbill-74877 · 9/10 · 8 July 2021]

Stunning black and white cinematography, and a documentary that truly transported me into the rugged lives of the Venezuelan laborers on the Araya peninsula, who mined the sea for salt for 450 years in much the same way we see here. The work is under scorching conditions and frankly pretty brutal, but every family member has their task and diligently performs it, day in and day out. The film takes a 'poetic realism' approach to the depiction, which has the benefit of the narrator taking the larger view of it all and imbuing it with a wonderful sense of grace. It has the disadvantage that questions we might ask are left out, such as where these people get their clothes or corn, and perhaps more importantly, what they themselves feel about their lives, what their hopes and dreams are, and what their views are of the modernization we see looming in the final few minutes (but unfortunately not expanded on). In short, it would have been nice to hear them speak. Despite that, it's a real work of art, unique and with images that will stay with me. It's a damn shame that director Margot Benacerraf did not make more films, because she really knocked it out of the park with this one.

Striking Visual Style in Elemental Black and White Fits Elemental Lifestyles

[museumofdave · 9/10 · 7 May 2014]

This documentary-style, relatively short feature film is poignant, stunning in it's simplicity and rich in its humane impulses; it features actual workers in an almost impossibly hostile semi-desert bordering on the ocean that has served as a salt mine for over 450 years; the huge pyramids of salt are impressive, but even more so are the men who climb them with 140 pound baskets of salt, dumping them on top and receiving a few coins in their palms each time--and the women at the base of the pyramids who bag and tie the salt in hideously hot and dry climate.

While this group produces much of the money for the locals in their adobe villages, another group produces the food, venturing out in a large boat every morning hopefully to return with nets full of fish, as they have for hundreds of years. There is a strong sense of community that binds these people, and filmmaker Margot Benacerraf, instead of having anyone employ dialogue, follows her subjects with mostly poetic narration and a strong musical soundtrack.

There is actually a conclusion, and how the viewer reacts to it will certainly reflect attitudes toward modernization and the erasure of ancient traditions; this is a remarkably visual film, stunning to look at, whether from the top of a salt pyramid or bending down to a simple grave decorated with seashells in lieu of the flowers which cannot grow in this part of Venezuela. This is a valuable film document of a disappeared occupation; be sure to watch the "extra" which, fifty years later, follows up on some of the original workers.

A wonderful documentary about simple people in a forgotten part of the world

[Mazoruler · 2 February 1999]

This is a very interesting documentary about a day in the life of two families of peasants in northern Venezuela. It records how they inherited their work from their parents and grandparents and how they extract the salt from sea water in order to sell it to survive in a very far and isolated part of the world. I think this is one of the best latin american documentaries ever done, and one of the best I've ever seen in my life.

In one word: Visual poetry

[artserrano · 10/10 · 9 April 2003]

"Araya" is a movie that makes you want to cry... it is so beautiful in its black and white and its simpleness that it's an equivalent of Neorealism but without the sadness. This movie shared the Cannes Award with none other than "Hiroshima, mon amour", althought it has had less luck in becoming a well known film. Its director founded the Cinemateca Nacional (a place where one can see many good old movies) and is also President of Fundavisual Latina, so although she hasn't directed anyome she continues to work on cinema.

A Venezuelan documentary about the salt pyramids.

[OneMinuteFilmReview · 10/10 · 24 December 2011]

A Venezuelan documentary about the salt pyramids in a place called Araya and those who made their living there. Trust us, whatever job you're doing right now, it is nothing compared to what these people have to put up with. They toil from day to night, with little payment and in the scorching sun. They were resigned to their fate since childhood and it is the only thing they know. The director chose to shoot like a fly on the wall (in this case, on a salt pyramid) what they actually do in a day. After you watch this, you'll appreciate your job and life like you never did before. It is an affirmation of the human ability to take on what seems impossible and turn it into an amazing possibility. The cinematography in black and white was illuminating too. Take a chance and give this a try. You won't regret it and might even learn a thing or two about human being's indomitable perseverance.

Araya

[mossgrymk · 7/10 · 16 November 2020]

You'll never look at a Morton's container the same way. What comes through most vividly in this strange documentary is the tedium and monotony of the two jobs...salt mining and fishing...on the peninsula of Araya. Unfortunately, about halfway through, perhaps due to the droning tones of the high school science class level narrator or the way the film maker has his subjects walk zombie like throughout the entire film, this enervation begins to affect the viewer (well, at least this viewer). Give it a B minus, mostly for the awesome, surreal cinematography. And please pass the pepper.

Araya film

[maddiepeace · 10/10 · 24 May 2014]

The Araya film made ​​in 1959 by Venezuelan filmmaker Margot Benacerraf allows us to reflect on the importance of this place, not only in the twentieth century, but for all seasons , at the beginning of the movie there is a narrative about what happened when, during the colonization , these salt were discovered , and the incredible beauty of this finding was disclosed to the Spanish monarchy , for this a fortification was built in this place, to protect it from invaders. Throughout this film the hard work in the salt is evident , working hours of workers, their dedication , skill and sacrifice shown . In the movie the lives of three families is narrated: Salazar, Pereda and Ortiz, these people are intertwined and we can see how difficult it was to work in the salt mines in the 1950s, pictures of the currency used to pay shown the salt workers often replace the official currency and could buy them in warehouses and other establishments in the region,is considered cultural heritage of Venezuela and a classic of world cinema, this movie should not be seen as a documentary because it was not the intention of Benacerraf, her goal was to tell the story of the people and their work in the salt mines,it is filmed in three locations: Araya, El Rincon and Manicuare and people who appear in the film belong to these places and they are not actors.This film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959 , the talented Margot Benacerraf is an example trump international scopes , she became the salt of Araya a known and important place elsewhere in the world , she also honored and immortalized through the film work of employees of the salt , worthy of respect and admiration . She created the National Cinemateque in 1966 giving the necessary importance to the art of cinema.This movie is amazing and really inspirational .

Very interesting doc

[filmgreg · 7/10 · 6 May 2017]

This doc explores the harsh life of salt miners & fishermen along a destitute, barren strip of coastline along the Venezuelan coast in the late 50's, before (SPOILER ALERT) mechanized salt mining does away with their way of life. Much like Luis Buñuel's "Land Without Bread", it's an unromanticized look at a harsh, unforgiving way of life that would be completely alien to most of us today.

450 years of medieval colonialist servitude, then machines

[TemporaryOne-1 · 10/10 · 20 February 2017]

Pharaonic Labour. 450 years of medieval colonialist servitude, then machines.

Machines: deliverance or dispossession and displacement? Lack of social/cultural/infrastructural evolution for 450 years, sun and sea and salt and fish, barren landscape, anachronistic idyllic utopian machine, inhabitants fixed unchanging volitionless coefficients for 450 years, until an external colonialistic entity introduces variation in the form of machinery/industrialization.

Sea salt is what remains when water is spent, when matter is spent, when the body is spent, when energy is spent, a fusion of sunlight and water crystalized into a bright glowing white geometrical structure, a cubic structure seemingly forged from liquid light energy, dregs, ashes, dust, classified as a mineral, a mineral comprised of 80 essential chemical elements, a mineral essential in sustaining human and animal and ocean life, in addition to many plant lives. Salt is essential to amniotic fluid; like the seas and oceans, amniotic fluid is extremely salty and that salty environment is necessary to producing and fostering the growth of the human embryo.

The human mechanics of salt milling parallel anatomical interactions of salt and water: pre-programmed robotic factoryline clockwork, precise, balanced, each gesture and and cellular process hereditary. Except sea salt mining necessitates dehydration of water from shallow water pockets in order to isolate and extract salt, whereas the human body, replete with oceans of water within the cells and throughout the body, necessitates a perfect balance of salt and water to avoid the debilitating and lethal effects of dehydration.

It's hard to lambast the exploitative machine of salt mining because salt is essential. Everybody needs salt and somebody has to extract it. The director muted the political/social critique, instead translating the labour into something that is part of the natural order of the universe of Araya, the people a special species created for the sole purpose of salt extraction, an approach that invites challenging questions. Isn't human labour part of the natural order of the universe? What is wrong with manual labour? Do we really want to introduce mechanical industrialization in such a purely natural environment? Do we really want to introduce into this environment all the social/political mechanisms designed to protect workers and enhance their quality of life, mechanisms that always do as much harm as good? Why interrupt something that is not as bad as it appears to be? Fruit pickers and slaughterhouse workers and landfill/soild-waste workers in the USA have it 1000x worse than the people of Araya did 50-something years ago pre-machinery. There is nothing wrong about people choosing to live an isolatory life of salt milling and fishing. Their lives are free of all the capitalistic consumeristic materialistic poisons destroying most of the world, so why introduce those trappings there? It's a double-edged sword, local inhabitants doing all the hard work is colonialist exploitation and must be stopped but "stopped" really means "replaced by machines" and we know that really means all the trappings of the west are unleashed into a purely natural traditional environment, and two of those trapping (industrialization, environmental degradation) visually punctuate the end of the film. Many challenging issues raised in Araya. A bounty of issues that are dominating the social/political spectrum right now.

Nice slice of life movie

[microx96002 · 8/10 · 15 December 2020]

I enjoyed this documentary, beautiful black and white photography, it's straight forward uncomplicated story telling and poetic narration. What I did find was it was a bit repetitive, and would be better suited to an hour long format. Nice document of a time gone by.

Well made but tedious....

[planktonrules · 10 November 2015]

Margot Benacerraf made this documentary about the hard and tedious life of workers in Venezuela who dry out and then transport salt from their marshes. It's backbreaking work and goes on day after day with no end. Not surprisingly, it makes for some VERY tedious and dull viewing. What makes it even worse is that the film often is very artsy (such as the first seven minutes of the film during which there is no narration AND the camera seems to focus on anything but the salt or the workers). Certainly this is not a film to be enjoyed by the average viewer (they'll hate it) but is best seen as an ethnographic documentary about a tough way of life back in 1959. I have no idea if this sort of work continues to this day. Nice camera-work (when it's not focusing on clouds, cacti or other irrelevant stuff) but also a film that defies my ability to give it a numerical score. And, it also bored me to tears.