Under the Open Sky review – camels and turbines in absorbing portrait of a threatened way of life

T he title of Sonum Sumaria’s languid film might suggest a general sense of possibilities, but her documentary in fact focuses on an indigenous way of life that has become painfully constricted. Ahmed and his family – descended from a long line of nomadic herders – raise camels on the plains of Kutch in western India . Their daily rituals, making rotis over open fires and nursing their livestock, unfold in intimate, unhurried scenes.

These routines are deeply in communion with nature, but the landscape has irrevocably shifted, threatening their very existence. A drought rages, leaving little water for Ahmed’s ailing animals. Climate change is not the only cause; in impressionistic wide shots, we see glimpses of wind turbines and factories, private enterprises that turn the surrounding