Written upon testimonies, rumors and fake news, this film questions the architectures of energy shaping the Algerian territory from its colonial history to the rise of Chinese extractivism, underlining the multiplicity of reality in a post-truth era.
Since 2006, thousands of Chinese workers have been arriving daily in Algeria to build new cities across the country. Refusal of taking care of the dead by construction companies led to rumors about the disappearance of worker’s bodies, therefore questioning the collective memory of these workers expunged from history.
Memories of an Unborn Sun aims to articulate a metaphysical query around light as a form of memory, blending archives from French nuclear tests in the Sahara, viral footage of an artificial sun rising in the sky and verses from Tuareg poet Hawad. As this nightless world embodies the capitalist utopia of infinite growth, how to remember those made invisible? Exiled workers and ghosts of an energetical quest.