Salero dir. by Mike Plunkett (review)

Mike Plunkett's directorial debut, Salero, takes place in Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world. The film's exquisite cinematography captures not only the haunting majesty of the Salar de Uyuni, but also the simple beauty of the innocuous elements of daily life in Colchani, the small town closest to the Salar. The film is both an astoundingly gorgeous piece of work and a richly detailed portrait of a dying way of life. Yet this portrait is incomplete. A full understanding of the dangers of the incoming mine are outside the scope of the film. Educators showing Salero should be prepared to add additional context to illustrate that the stakes are far deeper than what we see on screen.

The film opens with the titular salero, Moises, as he recounts the tale of Armstrong, looking back on Earth from space and stunned by the sight of the Salar de Uyuni. The ethereal soundtrack and stunning footage captured by director Mike Plunkett and his Director of Photography Andrew David Watson convey a sense of awe throughout the film; it's hard not to humbled by its beauty along with Moises. "The Salar is my whole life. There's no other place like the Salar, and there never will be. It's the most peaceful place on earth." Carefully paced silences give the audience a sense of being alone with this immense natural wonder.

Moises is an indigenous man who, like his father before him, traverses the Salar in his pickup truck to collect salt to sell in nearby markets. "Who wants to be a salero?" Moises asks his children as they help him sweep salt into piles in the back of his truck. "Me!" the children shout excitedly. Moises teaches them a song in Quechua about herding sheep.

However, the Salar de Uyuni is not only the world's largest salt flat but also the world's largest lithium reserve. With a new, booming market for lithium batteries, prospectors claim the Salar will make Bolivia the "Saudi Arabia of the 21st Century." Interviews with representatives of the mine are juxtaposed with thought provoking musings from Moises. While mining representatives celebrate technology and progress, Moises ruminates on humanity's ties to the land, the corruption of cities, and the falsehoods of progress.

Yet, the film is often agnostic in its juxtaposition of the traditional and the modern. Moises's romantic attachment to the Salar is not shared by his wife, trapped in her house watching telenovelas about romance and wealth, who dreams of leaving the remote isolation of Colchani to work in a beauty salon. Unlike her husband, she believes there is a better life waiting for them in the city. Yet her dreams come at a tremendous price for Moises, who is facing serious economic problems. With the new road and infrastructure coming into the Salar, the price of salt drops, and Moises's livelihood slips through his fingers. When his brother and business partner leaves, Moises can no longer refine the salt he's collected all his life. "Everyone here is thinking about how to bring more activity, more tourism, more money….over time there will be larger buildings in Colchani, it will be like Uyuni. I think Moises is going to have a hard time not working anymore with a shovel and a pickaxe. And that's what he's used to, being out on the Salar, since the time of our grandfathers." There is little Moises can do but listen to television and radio reports on the wealth that will come to the Bolivian people as he gains less and less.

"What do you want to do with your life?" Moises asks his son later in the film. His excited smile is gone. "To work in the Salar," his son replies softly, but Moises can no longer share his children's enthusiasm for a dying way of life. Many will find the otherworldly landscape of the Salar haunting long...