AMONG THE PALMS THE BOMB, or: Looking for reflections in the toxic field of plenty
Marxt/Smiljanić
The Salton Sea in southern California is a unique ecosystem. In just four years, the water level has fallen by a good half a meter, and with a maximum depth of ten meters you can calculate when it is expected to dry out. And that’s just the global aspect, which has to do with global warming and changes in the local climate. The Salton Sea is also special because the United States tested numerous atomic bombs here in the final phases of World War II and the Cold War – initially in preparation for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, later as training for missions that fortunately never took place. In AMONG THE PALMS THE BOMB, Lukas Marxt and Vanja Smiljanić are particularly interested in this aspect of regional history. The film begins in Utah, where the planes took off and then found their destination in the supposedly secluded area around the Salton Sea. There is a museum in Wendover where you can also see models of “Fat Man” and “Little Boy”, the only two atomic bombs ever used in war, along with a loading pit where the planes were loaded, to which Marxt dedicated a shorter film in 2019. For many years he has been dealing with the situation in southern California, which can be described as extreme in many respects. Intensive agriculture, which relies radically on monocultures, has cast a spell over everything there. Marxt and Smiljanić find out that an alliance has been formed against this backdrop: illegal harvest workers from Latin America seek refuge in Native American reservations. AMONG THE PALMS THE BOMB has local experts explain the landscape and history, and the director is looking for dissenting voices, especially among the tribe of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, who were victims of genocide in the 19th century. Their survivors now recall how many plants that had healing powers and were part of a life with nature once grew around the salty water of the Salton Sea. Now the area belongs to the salt bushes, and beneath the surface ticks the uranium of a Cold War that is about to return. Scary times, someone says. (Bert Rebhandl)
(Translation by John Wojtowicz)
press reviews AMONG THE PALMS THE BOMB (Critique)
"Testimonials from various interviewees are dextrously entwined with poetic shots of shifting landscapes, which range from closeups of environmental ruins to bird’s-eye views of arid soil. This interplay transforms these images into depositories of oral histories and lived experiences; these stories of exploitation, loss and Indigenous pain might not find a home in the official records, but they live on in this passionate documentary." (Phuong Le, The Guardian)
"An extremely urgent and essential documentary. A monumental work, whose visual and communicative power hits us like a punch to the stomach." (Marina Pavido, Cinema Austriaco)
"Among the Palms the Bomb uses a micro view of the Salton Sea as an entry point to examine the macro issues that continue to impact environmental and human health on a larger scale... The film's power lies in the way it reminds us about the universality of the entangled interests and realities that influence possible solutions." (Yuki Nakayama, Ecology Center Environmental Storyteller Rackham Fellow)
"Marxt and Smiljanic succeed in bringing both of these perspectives together to highlight the urgency of the worsening environmental crisis not only from outsiders, like the local experts but also from the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians... Among the rows of palm trees near the Salton Sea, there is a history much deeper than the surface-level fact that bomb testing occurred there, something that the audience would do well to remember." (Kristen Su, The Michigan Daily)
AMONG THE PALMS THE BOMB, or: Looking for reflections in the toxic field of plenty
2024
Austria, Germany
85 min
Documentary
englisch, Spanish, Cahuilla
English