Between the Rains: When Drought is More Than a Natural Disaster

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The word "drought" signifies far more than a mere lack of rainfall for certain regions in our modern world. It often heralds the onset of a much darker reality. That is the collapse of a culture and the widespread loss of human life.

This documentary brings us face-to-face with this brutal truth within the Turkana community of northern Kenya. Here, the "warrior" way of life, which belongs to one of the world's oldest nomadic tribes, is on the verge of extinction. The film follows the journey of Kole, a young goat herder destined by ancient tradition to mold himself into a "true man" through repeated, rigorous rituals. Simultaneously, his tribe must endure the most severe drought in recorded history, a catastrophe that has caused their livestock to perish like falling leaves. Driven by starvation, wild animals have begun preying on the villagers' cattle, while the struggle for dwindling resources with neighboring tribes has reached a boiling point, leading to inevitable and violent confrontations.

ภาพจากสารคดี Between the Rains

The film is masterful in its ability to use Kole’s story as a springboard for an exploration that is both broad and profound. It touches upon everything from individual identity to culture, history, and environmental crisis, illustrating that every dimension of human life is all linked and capable of inflicting a heavy, reciprocal impact.

The drought within the Turkana lands is not only a consequence of contemporary climate change but also causes erratic rainfall. But it is a crisis over a century in the making, rooted in the colonial era, where the drawing of arbitrary borders stripped them of their freedom to migrate in search of fertile pastures. Consequently, they were confined to land that has since degraded to its absolute limit. Once lush landscapes have transformed into parched deserts, becoming a living hell for a tribe whose survival depends entirely on livestock. Ultimately, this starvation and deprivation have led to a cascading collapse not just of communal bonds, but of the very core of human ethics.

In the story, we witness a suffering reflected through young Kole, a boy who yearns for more than just a life of goat herding and resists being forced into the violent path of a warrior, as ordained by his elders. He deeply resents the conflict that has shattered his friendship tragically with a dear friend from a rival tribe. Meanwhile, as the villagers believe the harshness of nature is a divine punishment, Kole begins to question why God has become so incredibly cold and indifferent to their plight.

In telling a story like this, filmmakers need to immerse themselves so closely with their subjects that they gain absolute trust, allowing them to capture intimate moments without intruding upon the reality unfolding before them. The two directors and their crew devoted four years to this opportunity, utilizing high-definition cameras capable of filming from a distance and minimal equipment to ensure they could move with speed and agility, especially when venturing into conflict zones to record events.

ภาพจากสารคดี Between the Rains

Between the Rains delivers a sharp, multi-dimensional narrative because directors Andrew H. Brown and Moses Turanira established a clear vision from the start that this would not be a documentary that clinically analyzes the scientific causes and effects of global warming. Instead, they intended for the climate crisis to be told through the eyes of those in remote communities, who are the people directly impacted, bearing the burden of hardship amidst a vanishing culture. The result is not just another commonplace environmental film, but a story profoundly layered with human conflict and the essence of humanity.