Event

Marina of the Zabbaleen

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At first glance this HD-CAM-shot documentary, Marina of the Zabbaleen (2008) might seem dismal: 11-year-old Marina and her irrepressible siblings live on an inhabited rubbish dump outside Cairo. Yet Engi Wassef's part-Tribeca-funded feature manages to be oddly life-affirming amidst the squalor. This is no grim, heavy-handed tragedy - rarely has a soundtrack contained more genuine laughter, or a squabbling family shown more love. Marina and her clan are Zabbaleen, garbage collectors who process and recycle 2,000 tons of fetid rubbish every day. Marina of the Zabbaleen follows this delightful, serious-eyed little girl as she goes to school, plays with her three wild siblings Mina, Romani and Yousef (Marina is the only "calm" one, says her mother), and faces the constant threat of eviction from their slum surroundings ("built" in 1969).