Tanzania Transit (2018)

Directed by: Jeroen van Velzen | 75 minutes | documentary

Documentaries come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they have a big story to tell, for example about an important historical event. Other times the story is small, but the message is big – for example, social themes are put on the map through personal stories. ‘Tanzania Transit’, by Dutch documentary filmmaker Jeroen van Velzen, is none of these things. Van Velzen walks through a train in Tanzania with his camera and lets the images and people speak for themselves. The result is a stunningly intimate portrait of Tanzania in the twenty-first century.

‘Tanzania Transit’ follows three Tanzanians in transit on a three-day train journey. Peter is an ex-felon who now earns his living as a pastor, promising his fellow passengers happiness and miraculous healings through the power of faith. Rukia is a woman in a man’s world: she runs a bar near the mines in the desert. Isaya, an old Masai, travels with his ambitious grandson William in the poorest part of the train.

The documentary does not follow a well-defined narrative, nor does it work towards a ‘closure’ or conclusion. That is not the intention either – Van Velzen seems to want to show contemporary Tanzania as realistically as possible. The train turns out to be a miniature society: through the three main characters we get to know all facets of Tanzania, complete with the accompanying tensions and contradictions. For example, Rukia tells almost casually about her rape years ago, and William balances between urban life and his Masai roots. He also gets into conversation with some Swahili, who see the Masai as backward and barbaric. It is a remarkably polite discussion: the Swahili are not angry, but almost politely explain to William what is the most normal thing in the world for them. Peter, although a charlatan, seems to genuinely care about the people he speaks to. He offers them hope and support, and seems to seriously think that he has made a change in his life.

Van Velzen is only an observer in the whole. He does not appear himself and there is no narrator. The images speak for themselves, there is no judgment anywhere. In the meantime, we can see what is going on in modern Tanzania: ancient tensions between tribes, the precarious balance between tradition and modernity and the struggle of women against prejudice and violence. By not burdening itself with a social or political message, ‘Tanzania Transit’ gives the viewer full scope to judge for themselves. The viewer can imagine himself to be one of the passengers, listening to the conversations around him.