Dangerous Crossings: The Struggle Along the Brahmaputra

Video Description

In this acclaimed documentary series, we set out on some of the planet’s most perilous roads, witnessing the extraordinary risks people take to shape a better future for themselves and their families. From the towering heights of the Himalayas to the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean, the Brahmaputra River winds its way over 2,900 kilometers, crossing China, India, and Bangladesh. Along its banks, over one hundred million people rely on its waters for their very existence. In the rugged mountains of North-East India, the river’s violent rapids make navigation impossible. Here, narrow dirt tracks clinging to cliffs are the only lifeline for remote villages. It is along these treacherous paths that courageous drivers steer aging, battered trucks, skimming the edges of sheer drops and crossing suspension bridges so fragile that every plank threatens to give way. Farther south, in Bangladesh, thousands of cattle are ferried downriver in simple wooden boats, while overcrowded passenger ferries jostle and collide in their desperate race to reach bustling docks. Many of these vessels are pieced together from salvaged materials, torn from colossal ship-breaking yards where workers toil in harsh, unforgiving conditions. Directed by Frédéric Elhorga & Guillaume Lhotellie