EQUATOR, SCARE ON THE RAIL | France 5 | Les Routes de l'Impossible

A railroad lost in the middle of the jungle, rails eaten away by humidity and bridges creaking over the void… Using makeshift trains straight out of their imagination, Juce and his gang make their way into the Alto Tambo valley every day to earn a living. The mountain may be collapsing, the derailments multiplying, but there’s no stopping them. In a country in crisis, resourcefulness, courage and a zest for life are their only resources.

At the foot of the Andes, on tracks clinging to the peaks, the “rancheras” circulate, cobbled-together trucks that act as public buses and ensure the essential: transporting men, cattle and crops to market. In the east of the country, the Amazon is in peril, and indigenous communities such as the Cofan are relentlessly surveying rivers and forests to push gold miners and oil companies out of their territory. But in recent years, this once-peaceful country has been slipping into the shadows. Isolated roads have become the playground of criminal networks from elsewhere. Attracted by its strategic position between Colombia and Peru, the drug cartels are gradually imposing their law.