À l'Est de Ouaga
Pierre Arragon
1996 - 26 min - Betacam SP - France

Very far to the East of Ouagadougou is Vietnam... the end of the world. However an African agricultural officer was sent to see what was happening in this "other South".
Built around the - imaginary - narration of his trip, this film leads us from the noisy town of Hanoï to the rice-plantations where the Vietnamese farmers make market gardening, stock-breeding and pisciculture, grow fruit-trees and never stop experimenting. The two characters we are following are entirely preoccupied with their trades. As a matter of fact, many things have changed since the foundation of the "contract 10" which redistributed the State's land to the farmers. There was a true explosion of private enterprise which has upset the Vietnamese society. Vietnam is tremendous lesson to the African visitor who also has to deal with the State's withdrawal. But is it a good thing to get involved into this craze for liberalism ?