In 2011, a group of villagers in the tiny outpost of Imider, Morocco, began a peaceful protest against the Managem silver mine. Seven years later, they continue to fight, occupying a water pipeline and interrupting the mine's ability to siphon local aquifers, pollute drinking water and dry out the Amazigh's almond groves. Their demands are basic: clean water, land and human rights. "We either get what's ours by right, or die trying": It's not a threat but a fact of life. Amussu doesn't trade in misery but hope, and focuses on the power of resilience, poetry and metaphor when confronting injustice. The protesters use creativity to deliver their message and their songs carry through the almond trees like prayers on the wind. Their success may not be evident unless you measure it in almonds, as the community welcomes their first harvest in exactly seven years, but maybe this is what divine justice looks like—the rewards of patience and persistence in a nutshell. Angie Driscoll
Co-presented with The Toronto Palestine Film Festival