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Belgian director Marion Hänsel's feature Si le vent soulève les sables unfolds in a desert village that is being crushed under the weight of drought (which has dried the local well out completely) and decaying livestock. Though the majority of the populace migrates to the south in an essential quest for a better life, Rahne -- the only literate indigene -- cuts against the grain, journeying to the east despite the danger of imminent war that lies in this direction. Accompanying him are his wife Mouna, his three children, a handful of sheep, and a few goats. The journey carries them across bellicose territory under a relentless sun, and finds the determined family struggling to survive at all costs. During the trek, they pull a great deal of strength from one of the children, the nomadic Shasha, whose exuberance and optimism cannot be quelled.