Summaries

Synopsis

Explorer and filmmaker Reza Pakravan sets off on an epic journey along Africa's most volatile and dangerous borders to discover the lives of those who live there. The series tells the story of this troubled, forgotten region through the eyes of Reza. Taking the audience on a visually stunning journey across the continent, Reza explores nations devastated by war and terrorism, and unearths the life-and-death consequences that climate change has wrought upon the land, where desertification has contributed to the greatest internal migration ever witnessed on this planet. Tracking across eight nations in the Sahelian belt, Reza discovers enduring traditions, religious diversity, and extraordinary landscapes.Beginning in Senegal in West Africa, Reza journeys through increasingly dangerous terrain across Mali and Burkina Faso, an active battleground with jihadist links to Al-Qaida. In Niger, he gets under the skin of human trafficking and joins a convoy of illegal migrants, sharing part of their journey to Europe. He meets an array of extraordinary characters and narrowly escapes a dangerous encounter with human smugglers. Then he moves on to Chad, an active war zone and the front line of battle with Boko Haram, where climate change has played into the hands of terrorist groups. Arriving in Sudan in the midst of the revolution, Reza is arrested at the border and taken for questioning by Sudanese intelligence. Kicked out of Darfur and arriving in Khartoum, he is followed by secret police all the time as he observes the bloodbath of the fight between militias and people. Finally, he travels on to Ethiopia's extraordinary landscape, where he experiences the hottest place on earth before finishing at the Red Sea in Somaliland: the country that does not exist.Aided by local companions, Reza travels as the locals do, capturing extraordinary, intimate moments rarely seen on screen, to deliver television's rawest and most authentic travel series.