The Ju/Hoansi people are among the oldest indigenous populations in the world, and as such, their customs have fallen out of step with modern societies. Without them knowing about the effects of pollution, global warming and other modern maladies, their world has changed and isn’t able to accommodate some of their most basic needs. For instance the government of Namibia has outlawed the wild animal hunting that once fed the Ju/Hoansi, and they are forced to seek for alternative means of feeding themselves in the Kalahari Desert. Resorting to dealing with tourists to whom they sell handmade jewelry and other accessories, the Ju/Hoansi have become guests in the lands they once owned.

In Ghostland, director Simon Stadler has made an insightful chronicle that will undoubtedly be treasured for its anthropological significance, he followed members of the Ju/Hoansi people as they made their first contact with “modern” places like Namibia and eventually Europe. But rather than having the novelty of a “city/country mouse” dynamic, the film serves as a meditation on the emptiness technology has brought to our lives. Rather than exoticizing the Ju/Hoansi, it’s Western culture that seems slightly off, affected and inefficient, it’s our rituals that seem strange.