And still, it remains
A powerful meditation on the afterlives of French nuclear toxicity in the Algerian Sahara, And still, it remains offers a captivating and compelling picture of a community shaped but not circumscribed by its history. In Mertoutek, a village nestled in the Hoggar Mountains of Algeria’s Southern Sahara, we spend time with the Escamaran community as they narrate their accounts and understanding of what it means to live with colonial toxicity. Summoning the landscape as a witness and protagonist, Directors Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah delicately explore this forgotten history, which continues to live in the ecology and bodies of Mertoutek’s residents. Inverting the French narrative of technological triumph, the film returns to the site of the detonations to explore time, justice, decolonisation, and resilience in the face of enduring toxic colonialism.
