Naku Ikinyu
(Living Forest)

Ait Atta: Nomads of the High Atlas

The Bin Youssef family migrates every year from the desert-like landscape of Nkob to the green pastures of Igourdane. With their goats (number around 800) , donkeys, mules, camels and dogs, each summer they embark on a formidable journey of resilience by foot. Overcoming difficult weather conditions with hot and dry days and cold nights, with limited access to food and water, the family makes their way through uneven terrain with steep climbs and descents, to reach the agdal before the official opening where all the right holders are allowed to take their livestock into the pastures. As part of this traditional system of communal natural resource management, the Ait Atta tribe preserves their ancestral right of access to the agdal dating back hundreds of years, even if it is often times denied and challenged by the villagers settled around. A sensorial ethnographic film on the incredible movement and (im)mobilities of the family and their herd, the film juxtaposes the hopes and constraints, obligations and sacrifices of a family torn apart between their traditions and their need to adapt to modern life. Stretching over the past, present and the future, the film provides an untimely intergenerational perspective on the essence and the very challenges of nomadism within an ever transforming Moroccan society.

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