Independent Lens: Garbage Dreams

Monday, December 10 at 10:00 p.m.

Filmed over four years, “Garbage Dreams” follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world’s largest garbage village, a ghetto located on the outskirts of Cairo.

It is a world folded onto itself, an impenetrable labyrinth of narrow roadways camouflaged by trash; it is the home to 60,000 “zaballeen,” Arabic for “garbage people.” When their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade, each of the teenage boys is forced to make choices that will affect his future and the survival of his community. By Mai Iskander.