Trading Cities

It is 2008 and Cape Verde’s flourishing tourism industry has ground to a halt. Construction of hotels and resorts has been interrupted by a shortage of sand, which was already threatening the survival of the island’s primary tourist attraction — its beaches. The situation excites business owners in Mauritania, who see an opportunity for exporting their most abundant resource. And thus a ‘commercial triangle’ is formed. Shot in 16mm, this documentary by Luísa Homem and Pedro Pinho is a pertinent reflection on the arrival of an economy of scale to an island — and the transformational effect it has on both physical and human landscapes.