Garbage Dreams (Sunday, January 10, 2010) (3)

The only real reason I went to see this movie is that it is on the 2010 Oscar Feature Documentary Shortlist and it is one of the few movies I have not seen from that list.

It is a very small movie about the Zabballeen, a Coptic Christian minority who live Egypt and are the only garbage collection service for most of the millions of people in and around Cairo. These are very, very poor people who have been collecting waste for more than 100 years because it was a job that needed to be done and it was the only job they could get as non-Muslims. We see how they recycle nearly everything they collect including plastic and glass bottles, metal, paper and organic materials. We see a team of social workers who take the people's children, who are not in formal school (because they work basically full time), and teach them tools like reading, writing and basic business skills.

At some point, we see the future of the Zabballeen being threatened by foreign waste removal companies who come in to make money in the rich neighborhoods of Cairo. These firms do not have the same pride in their work that the Zabballeen have (they see trash as a gift from God to them directly) and are not nearly as efficient as their poor competitors. Some estimates thrown out in the film are that the international firms are able to recycle only 20% of the garbage, while the Zabballeen are able to recycle 80% of it. (We have to take these numbers as true, but they are totally uncorroborated.)

The focus of the film is a group of a few young boys between 12- and 18-years-old. They bring a more intimate look at this world and we can see how these international firms bring with them a real getting-food-on-the-table worry for these people.

There is nothing especially brilliant about this film. Cute, naive kids are always a cheap and easy way of getting sympathy, but these youngsters are rather harmless. The middle of the film goes a bit slack and at times it feels a bit repetitive. Overall, this would have been a very good PBS special; it's only OK as a movie.

The best moment comes when a few of the boys are selected by a Welsh trash firm to visit Wales and see how garbage is collected in the developed world. (Garbage diplomacy! Who knew!) When the boys see what the Welsh do with their trash, they go a bit crazy as they see the tremendous waste that is not culled and recycled. It seems that the Welsh trash company is only 28% efficient with recycling. These boys try to explain to the management that they can recycle more, but their pleas fall on deaf ears.

This juxtaposition brings a fabulous, lucky moment. The indigent boys are brought in to learn lessons from the developed world, but they actually know more than their rich hosts. Brilliant.

Stars: 2 of 4