Original subtitles

THE WALLS OF SANA

AN APPEAL TO UNESCO IN THE FORM OF A DOCUMENTARY

DEDICATED TO THIS YEMENI SCARECROW

This plaque, signed by the Vice-president of the Government

and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China,

remembers the construction of the highway, that was built by Chinese,

between the Red Sea and the desert valley of central Yemen...

where Sana is located.

Until 10 years ago, Yemen was a medieval country, unchanged

during the centuries of its history.

The civil war between monarchists and republicans...

ended with the victory for those

who wanted to change the history, but have decimated the youth.

Soldiers and labourers are just boys.

It is unknown exactly what is the true will of these people.

At this moment, at least in Sana, the capital...

there is an extreme desire for modernity and progress...

such as we have in the West.

But this desire has been imported, it wasn't born here.

A small group of revolutionaries brought democracy to this medieval country,

which wholeheartedly accepted it,

but is defenseless, as always, against that what comes from above.

The republican revolution has also been socialist,

as it often happens in the Third World

First came the Chinese, to clear this..

to construct highways from the sea to Sana and, later, from Sana to the North.

Their presence is charismatic...

and their bodies very natural.

The highways made by Chinese brought to Sana...

the first consumer goods from the industrial culture,

regardless if it is capitalist or socialist.

"Good-doers" that came to Yemen from both East and West...

have put in motion irreversible changes.

As Yemen is a poor country, it buys consumer goods of low quality.

Their desire for progress is still naive...

and full of enthusiasm of a victorious postwar period.

They are content with little.

Nasser was the first to come to aid to Yemeni resistance...

with an unfortunate military expedition that was unpopular in Yemen itself.

Still, after the death of Nasser black flags of national mourning were hoisted.

Thanks to Nasser's aid Yemen opened to the future.

A new, though shoddy,structure of a modern city is being born:

the Parliament...

the Ministry of the Interior...

the National Bank...

the Ministry of Information...

the Ministry of Defense...

the residence of the President of the Republic...

The old city, within the walls, remains completely intact.

Sana is a great medieval city,

as big as Spoleto,

and perfectly conserved through centuries...

a perhaps unique case in the world.

It never suffered any contamination from the outside world...

and even less so from the modern, radically different world...

its beauty is surrealy perfect,

exciting and almost excessive.

Even on a more rustic and popular level

it is beautiful like Venice, Urbino, Prague, Amsterdam.

Yemeni rulling class is ashamed of her,

because she is poor and dirty...

and surely they already tacitly decided to destroy it.

The destruction of the old world is happening at every step.

Irrationality is promoted through the neo-capitalist city-planning speculation.

Instead of an Italia, beautiful and human, although poor...

there is now something indefinable; calling it ugly is an understatement.

Excuse me, could you take a look at Orte's panorama please...

the profile of the city of Colina there, take a look at it...

Don't you see anything in this landscape that is worth commenting, criticising?

- Over Colina or the village? - Over the village.

Orte looks like a ham...

Ham is good, just as the profile of the village is good.

And you, look at the panorama: don't you see anything inappropriate?

There are buildings being constructed that obstruct the view of the village...

It is not like before, with medieval structure.

They are constructing those buildings that are spoiling the landscape.

- Do you like the renovations? - I do, because I've lived here...

and new things that are happening seem good to me.

- How about you? - I say that those buildings...

are overpowering the village.

Is that just Orte's or an Italian problem?

I think it's an Italian problem.

- What can be done against it? - There's nothing we can do now

It's a consequence of typical Italian carelessness.

In this building an ex-mayor has an apartement.

He was mayor before, not any more.

- This was constructed while he was the mayor? - Yes, it was.

This building is irritating because it makes the village look ugly.

It spoils the whole landscape.

So much so, that it was criticised by people who are not from Orte...

including foreigners.

Once, a German was looking down at Orte...

and said that Orte was beautiful, unique...

and that he was disgusted by the building.

Italy is beyond salvation now, but Yemen can still be saved.

Main city gate of Sana opens to places...

where, until recently, its splendid walls stood isolated in the desert.

We're calling upon UNESCO...

to help Yemen save itself from destruction...

which has already begun with the destruction Sana's walls.

We're calling upon UNESCO...

to help Yemen retain awareness of its identity...

and how precious it is.

We're calling upon UNESCO...

to help stop this miserable speculation...

in a country where nobody denounces it.

We're calling upon UNESCO...

to find a way to make this new nation...

aware that its heritage belongs to all humanity...

and to protect it from destruction.

We're calling upon UNESCO...

to convince its naive ruling class, before it is too late,

that the greatest wealth of Yemen is its beauty...

and to preserve this important beauty,

which is an economic resource that does not cost anything...

Yemen still has the time to avoid the errors other countries have made.

We're calling upon UNESCO...

in the name of a true, even though still unexpressed...

will of the Yemeni people.

In the name of the simple men who were kept pure by poverty...

in the name of the grace of bygone centuries...

in the name of the scandalous, revolutionary force of the past.

subtitles by quequetz