Shibam - Stadt in Südarabien

There is something almost surreal about this short observational feature that takes a look at one day in this amazing town. Set amidst the desert, the buildings rise five or six stories from the ground and even have their own natural ventilation and guttering systems. There is no-one throwing buckets of waste out of the window here! The filmmaking is simple but effectively demonstrates just how this thriving community and their animals spend a day in the baking sunshine. Eating, drinking, playing and trading before a sandstorm sends them all indoors. It has the look of a culture that hasn’t changed in centuries. There is no electricity, no modern engineering nor any kind of motorised equipment to ease their burdens. Instead, water is fetched from the well in goatskins and the animals look just about as emanciated as it’s possible to look and still be alive! There’s no narration and only a very limited score to augment the natural sounds of the people, their beasts and the elements - and it’s well worth quarter of an hour just to realise how this society thrived barely sixty years ago.