WORDS ON WATER

For over 15 years, the people of the Narmada Valley in central India have been resisting a series of massive dams on their river. While the government promised better water distribution, by now only few farmers even have access to water at all. Merely twenty percent of the fertile farmlands can be watered. Meanwhile, almost all the supplies are used to fulfil the needs of industry, rich landowners and urban communities.

In their struggle, the inhabitants of the Narmada Valley have exposed the deceptive heart of India’s development politics. In a world where the use of violence has become the arbiter of most political debate, Words on Water is about a sustained non-violent resistance, an almost joyous defiance, which empowers the people as the struggle for their rights, yet saves them from the ultimate humiliation of violence. 

„When reasoned non-violent protest is ignored, time after time, for years, decades, when a society does not honour peaceful resistance, then by default, it privileges violence. Battles like the ones being waged on the banks of Narmada, all across India, and the world, together, are these not the true War against Terror?” (Sanjay Kak)

Best Documentary, International Festival of Environmental Cinema, Brasilien 2003

Best Film Slovakia Envirofilm, International Environmental Film Festival 2003

VIKALP Mumbai 2004