| Marina is a seven-year-old little girl. She is a spectacular, imaginative, smart, beautiful child. Marina lives in a garbage village. The order of those "plot points" didn't always sit that way in my mind. When I first set out to make this film, I thought the most interesting aspect of the Zabbaleen way of life was the garbage collection, sorting, recycling, et cetera. I was amazed that such a relatively small group of people was responsible for the collection and recycling of more than 2,000 tons of garbage every day. Their recycling rate is greater than 85 percent, compared to 33 percent in the U.S., and they do it all almost exclusively by hand. After I arrived at the village and started spending time with the families there, I realized that the most interesting aspects of their lives are not the ones that are so different from ours, but the ones that are the same. The fact that they care for their children, protect their families, sing together, laugh with friends, pray, play, and even stress out - that's what I found most interesting. The day starts early at the village of the Zabbaleen - even before the dawning of the blood-orange, scorching Egyptian sun. In the dark, the children emerge from their red brick houses, built without glass in the windows and often without four walls, and begin readying their donkey carts for the day's journey through Cairo's labyrinthine streets. The donkey carts are the first to go out because they are slow and need the head start. Next come the adults with their half-pick-up trucks labeled fake, hand-painted with brands like "DAIHATSU" "MITSUBISHI" and even "MERCEDES." The roosters' crows trumpet the mass exodus that occurs every morning as the Zabbaleen leave their village under the Muqattam Mountain to glean garbage from every crevice and corner of Cairo.
But, like any other people in the world, the Zabbaleen are not all work all the time. The pigeon callers that Marina used to watch from her window were a perfect example of things being the same, even when they're not familiar. When you boil it down to its purest form, pigeon calling is just creatively passing time. It's a hobby - like our baseball. We used Super 8mm footage in cases like this where we were showing things that were timeless: pigeon callers, kite flyers, children laughing, the slow and steady clack-clacking of the donkey carts. Seen through a child's eyes, the activities of the village are shown without judgment. Only a child can look past the squalor so innocently. I chose Marina because she was particularly observant and so mindful in her school and work. There were certainly bleaker options as far as casting. Marina is perfectly healthy, but at one point I had thought about focusing on a family in which four of the six children were deaf, mute, and/or mentally challenged as a result of constant inbreeding in their family. After exploring that possibility for a while, I realized that family is an exception in the village. To show them is really to tell a lie...an interesting one, but a lie nonetheless. I'd rather tell the truth - that, despite horrendous living conditions, most families in the village are healthy and happy. As for the title, I wish I could say I knew what "Zabbaleen" translates to in English, but I don't. Knowing would certainly make my life a lot easier every time someone asks me exactly what the film's title means. One way to translate it is "garbage collectors," but that seems too specific. It only captures one, relatively minor, aspect of what the Zabbaleen do. Another way of translating "Zabbaleen" is "garbage people," which is too general. In describing no specific activity, this term ties them to garbage in an all too familiar way - and if there is something the Zabbaleen's lifestyle definitely is not, familiar would be it. I spent hundreds of hours in the Zabbaleen village. After gathering more than 100 hours of footage, I still felt I had not captured all the aspects of their way of life. If a picture is worth a thousand words, and all those pictures still couldn't tell the whole story, you can imagine how I feel now as I attempt to tell it in words. Ultimately, it's precisely this elusive quality of the story that makes the film so unique.
Marina of the Zabbaleen screens at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival (click for times and ticket information). Festival runs April 23-May 4.
Also see MPM's video interview with Engi Wassef.
Photos courtesy of the filmmaker. *chorus from "It's a Small World (after all)" by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman |
