Deadliest journeys – Bangladesh : Survive in chaos

In Bangladesh, the most populous country on the planet, there is a saying that the cheapest thing is life. From the first images of the film, the term overpopulation takes on a concrete and sadly inhuman dimension. for example, who could imagine that a man willingly dives almost naked into the sewers of a capital of 15 million people in the midst of human excrement to fetch gold? This is the only job Gazi can do. Wounds and chemicals eat away at him. He knows he is condemned in the short term. But this is the only way he has found to feed his family and especially to allow his children to escape their destiny of misery. To cope with the absurdity of a hellish daily life, many rely on religion. Each year in Bangladesh takes place one of the world’s largest Muslim pilgrimages. For the event nearly 5 million pilgrims flocked from all over the country. Buses, boats and trains are stormed. Passengers are everywhere on the roofs, on the axles, hanging from the windows. An almost unmanageable crowd overflow in a country with obsolete infrastructure. At the sight of these barely believable images, one wonders if it is faith or self-sacrifice that allows Bangladeshis to thwart the traps of overpopulation and thus keep smiling.
Director: David Geoffrion, Daniel Lainé