The Salt of the Earth

The Salt of the Earth is a son's portrait of documentary photographer Sebastião Salgado. He left the family farm to study economics, but after working for The World Bank, he became a photographer instead. From nightmarish photos of gold miners in Brazil to refugee camps and famine in Africa, to Yugoslavia, the Gulf War, and Rwanda, Salgado had seen so much suffering that he had lost faith in humanity. He returns to Brazil, where deforestation has changed his childhood paradise into an arid landscape. He plants millions of new trees on the farm, which a decade later has turned into a lush rain forest. An uplifting documentary not to be missed! acvb

The experienced director Wim Wenders (b. 1945) and Salgado's son, the fresh out of school Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, originally planned two separate projects on the photographer. However, they decided to put their heads together, and the result is The Salt of the Earth, which won the Special Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of this year's Cannes Film Festival.