He is the classic scientist, speaking French, while Mohamed, speaking Amazigh, working on the ground with his wife and children, is far more religious-minded. Given the importance of the work, someone needs to give this man more funding right away!
In one discussion with his students, he even argues that understanding these fragments could be the key to understanding how the universe began. At one point, we even learn that some fragments have organic matter on them, briefly begging the question that there may be life elsewhere in the universe. We learn back in Abderrahmane’s research centre, that not only are these fragments potentially millions of years old, but they actually pre-date the sun itself. At home on a computer screen, your attention may easily wane. It begs to be seen in a cinema, considering the experiential duration of the desert-set takes, following characters around as they look for these rare meteorite fragments. But Adnane Baraka’s film - which he shot, edited, and sound-designed himself - has no conventional talking heads and a much smaller scope and budget, keeping its perspective relatively close. There are shades of Werner Herzog’s recent geographically-minded documentaries here, such as Into The Inferno (2018) and Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020) - looking at the physical world in order to understand the man-made one. Combining long takes with ambient sound design, and heated discussions with Terrence Malick-style voiceover, this documentary takes you on a quest, touching on topics both scientific and existential.
My opening oversells Fragments From Heaven somewhat, a poetic, if slight, documentary from Morocco with two complimentary strands: firstly, the story of Mohamed, a nomad who pursues the desert for meteorite debris, believing it has the power to change his life, and Abderrahmane, a scientist who is exploring the origin of these rocks in order to answer questions about the Big Bang itself. There’s nothing, nothing, nothing before suddenly something. There’s a reason Moses didn’t travel through lush vegetation and rolling hills for 40 days. The desert, in its bleak, existential emptiness, offers man the chance to discover his destiny.
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