The Salt of the Earth

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Juliano Ribeiro Salgado directs. Juliano Ribeiro Salgado behind the camera. Laurent Petitgand scores. Rob Myers cuts. Produced in Italy, France, Brazil. Dialogue in French, Portuguese, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 12 years ago.
• 2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: French, Portuguese, English.
• 3International production across 3 countries: Italy, France, Brazil.
• 4Directed by Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, shot by Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Laurent Petitgand. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Rob Myers shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Sebastião Salgado and Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "A Journey With Sebastião Salgado".
• 9IMDB entry: tt3674140 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Classified under 23 themes, including "human vs nature", "photographer", "exodus", "slavery".
• 11Released under 10 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography

Juliano Ribeiro Salgado

Original score

Laurent Petitgand

Editing

Rob Myers

Makeup / hair

Bru Simões

Sound

Aymeric Devoldère

Runtime

110 min · 1h 50m

Status

Released

Box office

$1,059,804

Original language

FR

Certification (US)

PG-13

IMDB

The Salt of the Earth (2014) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

94% 🍅 Fresh

Metacritic

83/100

IMDB rating

8.4/10 · 24,324 votes

MPAA

PG-13

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Official Trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Reno2016-10-14
  ★ 8/10

  The pictures tell us all the story, and when it does, you'll be heartbroken! This was nominated for the Oscars, but did not win. I should have watched it earlier, but I don't know how I forgot it and moved on. Recently noticed that I've missed it, so finally gave it a try and I really liked, but very sad to learn what the film narrated. This is a biopic, an aged photographer who traveled world revealed his experience with those horrifying encounters the humanity ever saw. From South America to Europe and Africa to Pacific Asia, he takes us back to the 70s, 80s and the 90s. His pictures tell us all the story, but when he explain more surround those pictures when he had taken them, that's where not just me, anybody who sees this documentary would be heartbroken. Initially I thought it was just a photo exhibition from the past 40- 50 years of his life, but after the opening few minutes, it kicked off from Brasil to the different parts of the world, like how people suffered from our own mistakes. Also the nature like the oil fields in Iraq, polar and sea animals, tribes, all are very fascinating, as well as upsets with the facts that causing all those troubles. Before watching this I thought it might tell about actual salt of the Earth, the chemistry, to brief its past, present and future. But what the film revealed was shocking and at a time, thanks for being very bold, for the present world, it definitely needed. This is just one man's experience, we don't know what might have happened behind when there is no camera to capture the moment and to tell the story to the rest of the world. A must see film, a documentary film like this is never late to see, even if it takes a lifetime to watch, you must take that chance and do that before you die. I have seen lots of documentaries like this, but this is not a message deliverer, it just finger pointed to our mistakes. You will learn some of the history that you ever learnt from your school, college textbooks or from your own journey around the world. So definitely these pictures are priceless. Not to admire, but to remind not to repeat in the future. I hope you watch it right away after reading my review. 8/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Secretaria de Estado de Cultura do Espírito Santo

  BR

• DE

  Decia Films

  FR

• AM

  Amazonas Images

• SO

  Solares Fondazione delle Arti

  IT

• 

  La Région Île-de-France

  FR

• MA

  Maison Européenne de la Photographie

• SE

  Serviçio Social do Comércio

Key crew

• EditorRob Myers
• ProducerDavid Rosier
• EditorMaxine Goedicke
• Camera OperatorDonata Wenders
• Makeup ArtistBru Simões
• Visual Effects ProducerMatthieu Schmit
• Camera OperatorDenis Auclair
• Makeup ArtistSarah Machal
• Camera OperatorRobert Iseni
• Sound EditorLucien Balibar
• First Assistant CameraThierry Pouffary
• Supervising Sound EditorAymeric Devoldère
• FoleyNicolas Becker
• Sound DesignerAymeric Devoldère
• Still PhotographerWim Wenders
• Sound Re-Recording MixerJean-Paul Hurier
• Assistant EditorSilke Zirnité
• Still PhotographerDonata Wenders
• Additional EditorJuliana Guanais
• ResearcherCamille Delafon
• Executive ProducerWim Wenders

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• human vs nature
• photographer
• exodus
• slavery
• photographic evidence
• combat photography
• cultural conflict
• starvation
• shocking
• humanity
• slave labor
• wildlife photographer
• crime against humanity
• human made disaster
• planet earth
• observational documentary
• every picture tells it’s story
• human in nature
• landscape photography
• beautiful landscapes
• group conflict
• experimental documentary
• conflict zone

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2014-08-29PG-13

Also known as

International titles

• 薩爾加多的凝視TW
• The Salt of the EarthUS
• Το Αλάτι Της ΓηςGR
• La Sal de la TierraAR
• O Sal da TerraBR
• 제네시스: 세상의 소금KR
• Das Salz der ErdeDE
• ملح الأرضSA
• Dünyanın DuzuAZ
• Sůl ZeměCZ