A week of sweet water

Ten years ago on the border lands of the Sahara, thousands of people slowly starved to death during the Great Sahel Drought. Since then, the yearly rains have returned but each year millions of people still struggle to grow enough food to make one harvest stretch until the next. This film tells the story of just two of them. After two visits to a small village in upper Volta, Peter Adamson has recreated the story of Minata and Boureima –the story of whether enough rain will fall, whether enough food will grow, and the story of the ten year old daughter who is about to become a woman –about to endure a week of sweet water.