Les Routes de l'impossible

Kenya is developing at full speed thanks to its agriculture and tourism, but is struggling to catch up in terms of road infrastructure. The country is split in two because of climate change. In the north, entire regions are suffering from profound drought, while in the south, populations find themselves threatened by rising water levels. Daily life requires courage from its inhabitants. Adam transports fish from Lake Victoria to Mbita on rutted tracks. In the Turkana region, David, a taxi driver, never hits the road with fewer than 15 customers for 8 seats!

Sumatra is the sixth largest island in the world. To travel in this territory of 60 million inhabitants lacking reliable infrastructure, some workers are forced to resort to archaic means. So, Masinis cobbled together his own motor wagon to use the old railway line. The pitiful state of the rails forces him to take great risks. But without it, farmers, villagers and gold prospectors would find themselves very destitute. For his part, Rudi must also face many dangers at the wheel of his minibus.

The Central American country of Guatemala is going through a never-ending economic crisis. Urban or rural, all populations are affected and rely on their courage or the Mayan gods they worship. Anthony, 18, a taxi driver, transports his clients to the mountains aboard a tuk-tuk. Tomas, a shaman, and Eric, his disciple, go on a pilgrimage towards a Mayan city that is very difficult to access. Hugo goes shark hunting for the first time. Finally, Maria Rosa and her children live near a landfill, which they try to take advantage of to go to Mexico, the beginning of the American dream.

In Chad, even the desert is experiencing flooding on an unprecedented scale. More than a million people are affected by rising waters. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of fields have disappeared, a tragedy in a country where a third of the population is food insecure. In the south, although rich in oil, each trip is an epic for the local populations who do not benefit from the benefits of black gold. Norbert and Souleymane exhaust themselves every week on a broken track to supply the surrounding markets. In the Salamat region, transporting people is a daily challenge. The raging waters have washed away parts of the road, and in places, the track is submerged for hundreds of meters.

Zanskar is a region of India located in the highest populated valley of the Himalayas, at more than 4,000 meters above sea level. To reach the small village of Ralakum, Nima and her son begin a long journey with their 4x4. Once the long car journey is over, the worst begins as there are two days of walking in the cold and ice. Tashi and Thinle also take risks to reach isolated villages in order to sell their fruits and vegetables. Cars sinking into ice and lack of oxygen seem almost insignificant compared to the recent floods which have devastated certain areas.

In Alaska, the cold turns the water into an ice highway, a vital route for the inhabitants but very dangerous for those who venture where the ice is not thick enough. The oil truckers face another danger, avalanches. The roads are sometimes impassable, the pilots earn their living with short flights, but the cold can easily damage their machines. The gold prospectors are ready to brave the cold water and the blizzard to try their luck in this lucrative business. As global warming hits the region very hard, new dangers appear.

In Thailand, the Karen people are isolated in the mountains and make a modest living from growing rice and corn. Anuwat, one of them, has to travel to his field along mountain roads that have been ravaged by storms. In his 4x4, he has to take all the risks but can count on the solidarity of the locals. In Laos, Ham, like all the other farmers, has been badly affected by the ban on poppy cultivation. His old military truck could implode at any moment under the weight of the goods and passengers in its trailer.

In Albania, men challenge precipices every day. Luan's truck no longer has brakes and cans filled with gasoline that clutter the passenger compartment are connected to the engine by a garden hose. System D is the rule in these mountains because the country is still struggling to recover from its past. Albania lived for 45 years under one of the harshest communist regimes in the world and Albanians were only allowed to own a private car from 1991. Many villages are only accessible by road. The other valleys are not better off. From the spectacular Koman Lake to the turquoise waters of the Kir River, the trails are still a challenge and the ghosts of "Kanun", a customary law, which authorizes blood vengeance, have not completely dissipated.

At -35°C and without shelter several dozen kilometers around, Mongolian drivers must face any challenge. Bataar'aa, whose 4x4 is falling apart, lights a fire under the engine to prevent it from freezing. In the absence of a road, he travels on icy rivers to supply the workers of the steppe. In the Gobi Desert, the tracks stretch for hundreds of kilometers. The country's economic "miracle" lies at the end of these: there lie the largest coal reserves in the world. For the drivers responsible for transporting “black gold”, the journey is endless. Baktu fights against the cold and the dust. His fear is to break down in the middle of the desert.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a vast territory, whose equatorial forest has long since engulfed the roads connecting Kinshasa to the north of the country. In this context, the Congo River and its 1,750 kilometers have become an essential backbone, despite the dangers: raging currents, sandbanks, and submerged rocks. The Ondika, a sturdy tugboat, tows three large barges with nearly 800 passengers on board. Aboard this floating shantytown, people sell, buy, and barter. Fishermen dock in canoes to offer fish in exchange for batteries, clothing, or tools. The river thus becomes a vital link for the riverside villages cut off from the rest of the world.

In the rainforest, hundreds of trucks circulate and intersect, threatening to overturn with their loads of wood or gas on the country's most perilous route. But these aren't the only dangers awaiting Nigerian drivers. Every year, the country experiences thousands of kidnappings by armed gangs. In Lagos, the capital, 300,000 residents cram into their "floating Venice": a vast shantytown on stilts with its own rules and its own king. As soon as they leave the lagoon, the residents find themselves plunged into traffic hell. Elsewhere, thousands of pilgrims converge on a sacred forest to seek the protection of the goddess Osun.

Borneo is one of the most spectacular and disturbing scenes of deforestation: every day, hectares of primary forest disappear. In this grandiose setting, women and men struggle to preserve their way of life while adapting to a changing world. Kara is a member of the Penan tribe, one of the last nomadic peoples of the forest. A nurse, she braves rutted tracks and rivers to care for her family. Malaysia is the world's second-largest producer of palm oil. While this crop is devastating, it remains a lifeline for many farmers. But the harvest still needs to be delivered during the rainy season.

"Banana kamikazes" is what Burundians call the cyclists who hurtle down one of the country's most dangerous roads at nearly 70 kilometers per hour. At this speed, and laden with several bunches of bananas, their bikes are virtually unstoppable. So they slalom between heavy goods vehicles to avoid accidents, travel in groups to clear the way, and cling to the back of trailers to catch their breath on the climbs. Elsewhere, Burundians who struggle in the mines also have to contend with rutted tracks. Trucks veer into giant mud crevices. This section of track is considered a national road. In reality, it is mainly in the hands of the region's militias, who organize racketeering to finance their guerrillas.

A railway lost in the middle of the jungle, rails eaten away by humidity, and bridges creaking over the void... Using makeshift trains, Juce and his gang penetrate the Alto Tambo Valley every day to earn a living. The mountain may collapse, and derailments may multiply, but nothing can stop them. In a country in crisis, resourcefulness and courage are their only resources. At the foot of the Andes, on tracks clinging to the peaks, "rancheras" circulate: makeshift trucks that resemble buses and transport men, animals, and crops to market. In the east of the country, indigenous communities, like the Cofan, tirelessly roam rivers and forests to push gold prospectors and oil companies out of their territory. But the strategic location between Colombia and Peru has also attracted drug cartels, who are gradually imposing their rule.

In Zimbabwe, Victoria Falls offers a breathtaking landscape, but their deep roar seems to echo the anger of a wounded people. For, behind the spectacular beauty of nature, hides an implacable reality. After 37 years of unchallenged rule, dictator Robert Mugabe has left a country bled dry. As for the roads, they tell, kilometer after kilometer, of the distress of an abandoned people. At the Bulawayo bus station, passengers jostle in chaos for a seat on chickenbuses, those overloaded minibuses with unpredictable routes. Driver Mutassa is not so lucky; broken down in the middle of the bush, he is alone facing the wild nature. Near Victoria Falls, others risk their lives in the rapids, reckless fishermen for whom survival is a race against death. Despite everything, Zimbabweans resist. With dignity, humor and unwavering energy.

With a sea of ​​sand as his only horizon, young Turki sometimes feels dizzy riding his old motorcycle. But with the tank he drags on the back of his cart, he absolutely must bring back water for his herd of dromedaries. In the Iraqi desert, the inhabitants have always had to adapt to an extreme climate and temperatures sometimes reaching 50 degrees. The great marshes of Mesopotamia have long been considered an oasis, but this vast delta of flooded land, long drained by Saddam Hussein's regime to allow his tanks to pass through, is today threatened by global warming. The "people of the reeds" nevertheless try to survive by navigating the heart of this strange labyrinth.

In Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries in the world, the struggle for survival often begins in childhood. On the congested streets of Dhaka, along the vast rivers of the Ganges Delta, or in the garment factories that clothe the world, millions of children work to help support their families. At just 13 years old, Sujon already drives a delivery truck through the chaos of the capital. Ten hours a day, he hauls hazardous chemicals amidst massive traffic jams. Another battle rages on the roads: drivers overtake at breakneck speed and swerve into the dust to avoid oncoming traffic. Their rule of the road often boils down to a "do-or-die" gamble. Fazlur and Imran sometimes work for more than twenty-four hours straight—a grueling race against time where every trip is a gamble. Three hundred kilometers away, 12-year-old Obaï boards a giant raft made of 5,300 bamboo poles with his uncle Sadek.

In Vanuatu, a small archipelago lost in the vastness of the Pacific, paradise comes with the taste of a daily struggle. Cyclones, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and rising sea levels constantly threaten the inhabitants of a country considered one of the most disaster-prone in the world. On the island of Malekula, Bosko and his taxi ferry farmers, the sick, goods, and schoolchildren every week through a jungle where the slightest downpour turns the roads into quagmires. The only way to reach their destination is to put the passengers to work! They push vehicles stuck in the mud, move rocks, and more—spending hours on the road to cover just a few dozen kilometers. Here, mutual aid is often the only alternative to a lack of infrastructure. On Pentecost Island, some traditions seem frozen in time.

In Colombia, some roads do not appear on any official map. Deep in the Amazon, tracks hacked out with chainsaws cut into the virgin forest, drawing new settlers each year who are fleeing poverty, cartels, or armed conflict. To supply these forgotten territories, Don Ever ("the Placid One"), Don Miller ("the Charmer"), and Alex ("the Artist") brave massive mud pits where a hundred-kilometer journey can take more than twenty-four hours. In the southern mountains, along steep tracks, twin brothers Emerson and Edwin operate a bus route that is vital to isolated villages. As children, they used to cross through crossfire between guerrillas and the regular army to get to school. To this day, they refuse the easy money offered by traffickers. Further north, in the lakeside village of Nueva Venecia, residents are battling an invasive plant that is choking their lagoon and threatening their only source of livelihood: fishing.

Deep in the frozen Altai Mountains of western Mongolia, a nomadic family prepares to face the year’s most perilous challenge: a 120-kilometer migration through snow, bitter cold, and storms. To save their herds from starvation, Bazarbay, Talap, and their relatives must drive nearly 200 animals to their summer pastures. Among them is 7-year-old Daryn, embarking on his first great journey. Devastated after the sale of his beloved horse, the young boy is given a mission by his father: to look after "Doudou"—a frail young calf—and a goat about to give birth. It is a responsibility that will force him to grow up faster than expected.

In Cambodia, the people have learned to keep moving forward, come what may. Despite torrential rains, monsoon-flooded roads, and the lingering scars of the Khmer Rouge era, everyone shows great ingenuity in making a living. In Ratanakiri province, Sok Veht hauls tons of latex along tracks turned into quagmires—driving makeshift trucks that lack both cabs and windshields. On the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest lake, Samat watches the fish stocks gradually dwindle. Like millions of Cambodians, he relies on this vast freshwater expanse, which is now threatened by deforestation, overfishing, and dams built on the Mekong—including those constructed by China. While some fishermen give up, others persevere. One such man is determined to give his daughter a dream wedding—but doing so requires towing a massive, 45-meter-long floating banquet hall to the village using a rather unreliable boat.