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Mikala Krogh

Cities on Speed: Cairo Garbage

    RELEASE

    2009-10-20

    BUGET

    N/A

    LENGTH

    55 min

    Description

    Once upon a time there was a city that was neat and tidy, and which was home to only 12 million people. Today, however, Cairo has a population estimated at 20 million. Garbage is piling up in the streets and the piles are growing. Everyone in Cairo has his or her views on garbage but nobody knows what to do about it. Italian garbage disposal operators are brought in to tackle the city's waste problems and to teach the city dwellers rational garbage habits. »Cairo Garbage« is a portrait of the city community seen through its garbage.

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      Reviews

      Tejas Nair

      @nairtejas

      Cities on Speed: Cairo Garbage is a deadpan take on the huge garbage problem in the Egyptian capital, and although it was filmed in 2009, the message still seems to ring true now in 2020. It is a documentary that makes you realize how simple it might be where you live and it's apparent that the condition will most likely be better than how it is in Cairo. People, after having been dependent on door-to-door garbage collection for decades, now throw their refuse on the streets. There is no proper state-sponsored garbage collection or waste management, which has resulted in private companies entering the field, largely to no great impact. All of this is narrated in this cool 50-minute documentary that is a lot unbiased (it interviews two people and also captures the irony - they have the garbage problem yet they litter the streets unknowingly). I don't know why they chose that merry jingle to go with the animation but it's still a good watch about the problems associated with garbage collection in a big city like Cairo. Grade B.

      (Watched at the 2020 IIHS UrbanLens Film Festival.)