What happens when we create trauma to the body of the Land?
Who will be harvesting the consequences?
What about the ties between colonisation, capitalism and climate change?
Is climate justice even possible?
TERRA MATER is talking about land, a vast and complex issue here in East Africa, and the continent in general. An issue that is directly linked to the people, their heritage, their future, very concrete, very tangible. But it could really be anywhere. Stolen land, contaminated land, ravaged land as opposed to rich land, fertile land, sacred land. There are economical, political and spiritual aspects to the land, and we are part of its ecosystem. Our human bodies depend on the health of the body of the Land. Therefore we need to protect and restore, to repair and honour it, on a global scale. We need respect.
This film has been made possible thanks to a team of renowned artists from Rwanda, Kenya and Switzerland. All the extras live in Dandora itself (the place where we shot, a suburb of Nairobi). It was important to me to reunite a team, cast and crew, that is representative of our values and to present them in a way that empowers them.