Tanzania Transit

Jeroen Van Velzen
Netherlands 2018 | 75 min | engl. subtitled

Sun, 02-Jun-19 08:00 PM
» Trailer

A busy train full of pas­sen­gers rolls through Tan­za­nia from the capi­tol to the provinces for three long days and nights. In third class, we meet a charis­mat­ic Masai named Isaya and his grand­son William, who earns a living in the city’s show busi­ness, some­thing his grand­fa­ther does not under­stand. In second class, we meet the entre­pre­neur Rukia, who was forced to marry as a young girl and whose hus­band later left her with her young son. She has since mus­tered the courage to make a fresh start as a bar owner. In the front of the train, where the first class pas­sen­gers sit, we encounter the enig­mat­ic voice of Peter, who used to be a gang­ster but is now a priest and who talks to his fellow trav­el­ers about their wor­ries, whether they want or not.

This is Tan­za­nia in tran­sit. As the train moves along through the dusty land­scape, the film sketch­es a pic­ture not only of pover­ty, prej­u­dice, and hos­til­i­ty against the Masai, but also of social change, new begin­nings and a hope­ful eye on the future, to wher­ev­er this jour­ney is going.