05/04/2022 - The German director spoke to us about his documentary dedicated to Tony Rinaudo, an agronomist who introduced a conservation agriculture system with the help of farmers in Niger

(© BFM)

While head of the international jury at the Bergamo Film Meeting 2022, German director Volker Schlöndorff brought his most recent work The Forest Maker [+see also:
interview: Volker Schlöndorff
film profile] to the festival, which is a documentary dedicated to Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo who introduced a conservation agriculture system with the help of local farmers in Niger over 25 years ago, called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). His approach was so successful that it went on to be replicated in at least 24 African countries, ensuring the livelihoods of thousands of farmers. The director of big hits such as The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, The Tin Drum and The Legend of Rita spoke to us about his documentary and about cinema in general.

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Cineuropa: This is your first feature-length documentary and you’ve described it as a “documentary essay”.
Volker Schlöndorff: Yes. It’s an attempt at a documentary [laughter]. I’ve been involved in various collective documentaries, but I didn’t intend to shoot one myself until I met Tony Rinaudo, who really blew me away. I asked if I could follow him in Africa. I brought a camera with me and then, once in Mali, I found a director of photography [Paapa Kwaku Duro] and some sound technicians, and I started shooting, without realising that the project would go on for three years. I went from examining trees to examining farmers and then migration, and from migration to living conditions and the environment. The film doesn’t have a true documentary format, it has more of an epistolary style, one thing follows another. I didn’t have any intentions of reinventing the genre. But I remembered Chris Marker’s documentaries from the 60s. There’s one in particular which inspired me, Letter from Siberia, which has an open format.

To talk about Africa is to talk about our roots. What is your view of the continent?
I really liked the genesis of Africa which ethnologist Carl Einstein put together in around 1910. We need to give Africans the opportunity to voice their thoughts, which are different to the ones we have in our culture. Rinaudo learned from people, and I went there with my eyes wide open. I’ve been working in Africa for 15 years now, in different countries, mostly with a film school in Rwanda. I’ve developed relationships with lots of African youngsters and my view on Africa isn’t pessimistic, solely revolving around catastrophes and misery. There’s a vibrancy, kindness and mildness to these peoples. A deep sense of humanity which endures and which is light years away from the cynicism which sets Europeans apart. 

And yet in all these years, Africa still hasn’t resolved its sizeable problems.
Everyone agrees that all development attempts have failed and that they encouraged corruption. As Rinaudo told me, “in 40 years, I’ve never seen a single dollar make its way to a small village”. They focus on big projects to take their slice of the pie. And this has made it difficult for him to apply his method, which has been entrusted to the farmers. They would need financial help in order to survive while the desertified land regenerates itself and plants grow. But authorities in the various African capitals aren’t interested in helping them, because people living in rural zones don’t go to vote during the elections! Local structures and authorities aren’t represented within national institutions. Yet 70% of the population lives in the countryside, so development should be focused within these areas, in order to bring them electricity and water. Then again, I do find agriculture sexy!

Your distributor Weltkino has decided to take the film on tour from 5 April, starting in Berlin.
Yes, it will be travelling to 31 cities and 44 cinemas throughout Germany. I’ll be accompanying the film each and every evening, sometimes twice a day. Cinemas which screen arthouse films are at crisis point; our distributor insisted that traditional cinema distribution wasn’t the best way forward, so my presence would be required. 

It’s a method of circulation which seems to be the future for high-quality films.
I think that the older generation want to leave their homes to watch films, but audiences shrunk by 50% following the pandemic. There’s been some sort of biological rupture brought about by the internet, and successive generations have found digital content more familiar. Platforms have resulted in more films than before, production has risen and one-hundred-minute-long film formats have changed. The dynamic for older generations watching films was about experiencing emotions with others. With series, it’s more of a cerebral experience.

(Translated from Italian)