Tchissète, The Mirror of the Tuareg (2004)

In his first feature-length documentary, filmmaker Sébastien Wielemans heads into the Sahel Desert in Niger and immerses himself in the world of the Tuareg, a traditional nomadic people. Wielemans does not travel along with the different tribes, but focuses his inquisitive camera on a small store in the desert. On a micro level, this meeting place constitutes a socio-economic gauge of the Tuareg's living conditions and manners. At the same time, it is the reflection of some tribesmen's underlying desire to abandon their wandering existence. Owing to a combination of stills that momentarily freeze a couple of tribesman and loosely shot images of meetings, anticipated or not, Tchissète, le miroir Tuareg transcends the common ethnographic documentary. With philosophical reflections on the influence of his camera lens on both subjects and filmmakers, the young director explores the cinematic language.