Anhovo

In the wider region surrounding us, it would be hard to find a place that saw the magical promise of industrialisation and progress morph into its total opposite more painfully. What had enthusiastically provided the daily bread later turned out to be poison. In many cases of industrial devastation, the poison is metaphorical, but in the case of Anhovo, where children played with the white asbestos residue, it is quite literal. A single asbestos fibre is enough to make a person sick. It has taken many lives and decades after being banned it continues to take them. Many are battling the disease it has caused and many others wait, in uncertainty, if a similar fate will befall them. The valley paid dearly for those breadcrumbs, but the story of Anhovo, tragic as it is, does not end with the production of asbestos roofing. In the 1990s, its production was briefly replaced by the production of, also cancerogenic, styrene. Soon, the co-incinerating of toxic waste entered the story, as well as extensive digging of ore from the local quarry and unregulated water distribution system into which water, poisoned with heavy metals, recently broke.

But Anhovo is not only a story of the many facets of ecologic destruction and the rule of the capital over people's health. It is also a story of resistance, courage, resilience, solidarity and persistence. The documentary piece Anhovo by the successful young author and director Žiga Dovjak and the author Katarina Morano, for whom this will be their Nova Gorica debut, will try to listen to this valley that can teach us so much in the uncertain times that are coming.

No matter how low the quantities are, they still present a risk. The standard value in the United States, that is 0,2 fibre per cubic centimetre, will, after a 40-year long exposure cause 650 cancers per 100.000 exposed workers. The question is, from where on the state is willing to take a risk, that is a political decision. It’s not an expert decision. A standard is not an expert decision. 

Metoda Dodič Fikfak