Synopsis
Similar to Michael Winterbottom's In This World, a documentary-like movie filmed with real Afghan youth where a boy risks his life to enter London to avoid hellish life in Pakistani refugee camps, 14 Kilometers tells the story of despondent young people along Africa's Niger River trying to cross the border for better life, no matter how marginal. Fourteen kilometers from North Africa to Spain is a short distance, but it is an endless ordeal fraught with treks through scorching sun and sandstorms, forbidding and repressive border patrol, and deaths of partners that one can do nothing about. The film shows the will of a man and a woman who care for each other while never giving up on their dreams, but also asks a pessimistic and perplexing question on whether their destination truly is the land of dreams they search for. The vast desert and beautiful sunsets contrast with the cold reality of the situation and further heighten the emotions. (NAM Da Eun)