ARLIT, DEUXIÈME PARIS

Back in the 1970s, the desert frontier town of Arlit in Northern Niger was the Eldorado of the region due to the uranium mining operation of the French company Cogema which employed 25 thousand people. Labelled the "Second Paris", Arlit was then a promise of adventure, highlife and a brighter future. The Touareg rebellion in the early 1980s and the French company's withdrawal turned Arlit into a ghost town. An economic depression followed, while the radioactive poisoning of the population is still going on: many suffer from asthma, some are dying. The mines were built far too close to the town.

The city has turned into a stopping-off point for illegal immigrants heading to the "Promised Continent Europe" via Algeria. Coming from all over Africa, they find themselves stuck in this dusty, dreary, lethargic place, prisoners of time and space. However, the surprising ethnic mix, which has resulted from the continuous inter-African migration, makes it a unique and fantastic place. This is a story of exile and migration, misery and separation, and the immobility of time. Quiet camera movements, scan houses and faces, searching for signs of the past heyday of the African ghost town, revealing shimmering pictures of a place in-between-times.

"Arlit developed thanks to the uranium mines and immigration, and in the 70s was the equivalent of 19^th century New York for that part of Africa. It was in some ways a land of adventure where everything seemed possible, where everyone could better their situation [...] While I'm very aware of the naiveté of the Eldorado dreams of Arlit's illegal immigrants, I am also conscious of the destinies of these men and women who left their families, their children and their loved ones in order to make this difficult, hazardous journey. How all these diverse directions come together to make a multi-ethnic melting-pot is what fascinates me." (Idrissou Mora-Kpai)