Araya

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Araya

1959

1h 30m

Documentary

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

92%

Tomatometer

37 Reviews

92%

Popcornmeter

50+ Ratings

A chronicle of how people use an old salt mine.

V.A. Musetto

New York Post

Sep 24, 2026

I’m not sure why it took 50 years for “Araya” to reach New York, but let us be thankful to Milestone Films for giving life to this forgotten film.

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Andrea Gronvall

Chicago Reader

Sep 24, 2026

The director scripted and staged the action to extol the working poor, finding strength and dignity in their almost balletic rituals.

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

Nov 4, 2019

Benacerraf's grand style captures the drama of subsistence in the face of nature; the overwhelming beauty of the wide-open spaces contrasts with the workers' burdened trudges through them.

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Arlin Golden

Screen Slate

Sep 24, 2026

Questions posed by sudden modernity, hope that the lives to which we’ve been introduced will improve quickly gives way under the weight of the 450-year colonial history invoked in the film’s opening: that’s just not the way these things go.

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Stuart Galbraith

DVDTalk.com

Sep 24, 2026

The film features an abstract score by Guy Bernard and narration by Benacerraf and Pierre Seghers that complement the hypnotic effect as workers uncomplainingly go about their business.

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Daniel Kasman

MUBI

Sep 24, 2026

Benacerraf's film is absolutely gorgeous in its images of the work, of men rhythmically beating salt, dumping salt, cutting salt; of a woman crafting pots, cutting branches, selling fish. Indeed, aesthetics may very well trump the documentary aspect.

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@ScottR Dec 20, 2020

A stark realist documentary showing the harvesting of salt in Araya near Venezuela. A humbling reminder of how lucky we are and how far we've come. Saw it on TCM.

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Oct 24, 2013

Stark pyramids of salt, austerely beautiful salt miners (Women in bleached white muslin, men doing back-breaking labor in white suits and straw hats).

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Nov 24, 2012

A great movie for so many reasons. Even if the director has said now and again that this is not a documentary, but a fiction film it is impossible not to see how it actually documents the way salt was exploited in the salt mines of Araya. Breathtaking images and a beautiful text make this an unforgettable visual poem.

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Feb 6, 2010

Exquisita composición lírica y tributo a una población y una región olvidadas. Solo la narración tan formal menoscaba algo el efecto total, pero no deja de ser impactante. / Exquisite lyrical composition and tribute to a forgotten people and land. Only the very formal narration undermines somewhat the overall effect, but it remains striking.

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Oct 8, 2009

Excellent cinematography! Better humanity! A Venezuelan's masterpiece!

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Margot Benacerraf

Director

Margot Benacerraf

Screenwriter

Pierre Seghers

Screenwriter

Henry Nadler

Producer

Guy Bernard

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Synopsis

A chronicle of how people use an old salt mine.

Director: Margot Benacerraf
Producer: Henry Nadler
Screenwriter: Margot Benacerraf, Pierre Seghers
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: Spanish
Release Date (DVD): Apr 5, 2011
Runtime: 1h 30m

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