The End of Silence

Just one of the many far-reaching impacts of the slave trade on human history is on agriculture and horticulture. While the French plantation owners on the Caribbean island of Martinique had their gardens laid out, Versailles-style, their enslaved workers continued their tradition of using medicinal wild herbs. Nowadays these herbs represent one of several resources through which the people of Martinique counter the health and ecological ravage caused by the use of pesticides on the banana plantations. Farmers are reclaiming uncultivated lands to grow indigenous vegetables, without any industrial pesticides; they fight boldly for simple biodiversity.

Blanche has been promoted to a job in another city. She and Damien and their kids thus change places, to this place on the oceanside ; Blanche felt like changing something. But something is different. Damien dreams of a car accident, of a roadcurve above the ocean... Of a woman’s face. Then he meets this woman, whilst running on a road above the ocean, precisely… She is Ariane. Damien’s arrival has made her reappear. She is dead. : she died in the car accident Damien dreamt of. She is here, in flesh and blood. He sinks into an irrepressible passion with her, in her arms. Blanche has no idea what’s happening of course, but she sees Damien slowly drifting… Around them, the world is as good as empty. There is nothing left but matter.

Robinson and Theresa form a couple in crisis, who are reclused in the countryside with their two children, preparing for the collapse of the thermo-industrial civilization. The lack of desire and future perspectives make their lives impossible until they find a strange mushroom in the forest, whose aphrodisiac properties lead them to reconnect to each other. Unfortunately, soon they cannot live without it.

Gold fever has gripped northern Niger. In search of the precious metal, and despite the risks, an army of researchers has invaded the sites of interest. While camps are set up and dismantled as rumours of new leads spread, Moussa and his companions are banking on the Ikazan vein.