After a storm erupts in the Sahara desert in 2011, dust is swept up in the air and an air mass travels to a distant city. When the dust arrives at the city and doesn’t find the right humid conditions to land, it remains suspended in the air and starts to enwrap the city in a dust film.

In a nondescript apartment somewhere in the city, a woman convenes a gathering at which a group of young people are present. Like every young generation, they are a repository of hope for the future – albeit a future that seems equally murky and obscured. In Reman Sadani’s film ‘Walkout 1’, the assembled young people are also the involuntary subjects of a prophecy, passed down from an elder who was seized by an apparition of a youthful cohort walking ever-upwards towards the clearing sky.

To pave the way for the realisation of that vision, the protagonists, following the lead of their female instructor, move large quantities of sand into mounds and slopes – each repeated ritual action steadily re-affirming the instructor’s indefatigable faith; each exhortation for greater effort after the latest attempt comes to nothing slowly spreading doubt amongst the group.

Film & video Umbrella production

Director: Reman Sadani
Production manager: Elizabeth Benjamin
Production assistant: Leah McGurk
DOP: Jamie Quantrill
Production designer: Rana Fadavi
Prop master: Wendy Short
Props assistant: Joe Highton
Set builder: Matt Evans
Set build assistant: Chris Grieves
Set dresser: Ellen Rose
Gaffer: Jerzy Gudjonsson
Studio/sound technician: Jelmer Tuinstra
Costume designer: Puer Deorum
Make-up artist: Jacinta Andolini
Runners: Dmitry Frolov, Alice Karsten
VFX artist: Edwin Mingard
Title and credit designer: Ross Aitken