She wanted to film the effects of global warming in the poorest country in the world: with Walk on water, the French actress Aïssa Maïga exhibits “without miserability” the daily life of Fulani women and children affected by the lack of water in Niger.
This documentary, which hits theaters Wednesday, November 10 in France, was presented in a parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival in July, dedicated to the climate. The film is co-written with Ariane Kirtley of the NGO “AmmanImman” (“Water is Life”) was filmed between 2018 and 2020 in Niger.
This is the second documentary by the 46-year-old actress, after Black gaze, on the representation of black women in cinema, broadcast this year on Canal +. It follows the collective book Black is not my job (2018) and her intervention at the César in 2020 where she denounced the lack of diversity within French cinema.
In Walk on water, the actress decided to take an interest in the cause of global warming by accurately filming the daily life of Fulani women and children. With the climate crisis, the rainy season is shorter and water is sorely lacking most of the year. So, women and children are forced to migrate to neighboring countries, giving up life in their village and the education of children.
“When I was offered to make this film, I almost said no because I was doing Regard noir at the same time and I did not imagine myself making two films at the same time. But after reflection, I called back the producer to tell him that I felt connected to this story because of my origins (Malian and Senegalese, editor’s note) “, she explained to AFP in Cannes.
With this film she wanted “show how people, who lived in an environment that was not hostile, find themselves in a few years to suffer from lack of water and its forced to migrate. And that is because of global warming”, she added. “The lack of consideration that black-skinned people suffer on this planet is so delusional that for me to make a film about it, it was imperative to avoid the pitfall of miserability”, she clarified.
If the film shows how poor countries, and low polluters, are the first to suffer the effects of global warming, the actress and director ensures not “wanting to make anyone feel guilty”. “Guilt has never been my driving force, neither in my life nor in my work. I am there through my sensitivity to transmit an emotion, a look, which will bring us all together”.