An isolated desert community in Kenya is introduced to electricity and mobile internet. What will this modernisation bring about in the villagers’ lives? Social progress or the obliteration of a traditional way of life?
In 2020, both electricity and mobile internet were introduced in the remote desert community of Illaut in northern Kenya. This was a transformative change for a tribe that lived according to the Samburu way, a traditional way of life and culture going back many generations. To capture the impact of this transformation, documentary filmmaker Jasmijn Schrofer travelled to the village and for several years documented the villagers’ struggle to embrace modernity, while at the same time preserving their nomadic cultural heritage.
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