Noise That Brings Money

At the blacksmiths’ market in Maroua, in the Far North region of Cameroon, hammers clang all day long. Here, the local forgerons turn scrap iron into objects of everyday use. Car bodies become wheelbarrows, truck wheels are transformed into ploughs, and smaller scrap iron parts end up as spoons and buckets. 

The film is a portrait of Abakar, a young creative blacksmith running his workshop at the market. A father and husband at home, a teacher to his young apprentices at work, Abakar is also an inventor, pursuing the dream to modernize his workshop and to establish a blacksmith enterprise. With the growing success of his newly invented “improved cooker,” a possibility of attending an international exhibition abroad arises. While moving between the noisy market, calm offices, and local contests, in order to promote his newest invention and organize his travel, Abakar encounters the daily problems of a beginner entrepreneur and enters the world of bureaucracy. Noise That Brings Money is a film about the persistent struggle to fulfill one’s dreams by bringing the seemingly unusable pieces of iron back to life.