L'idée gâtée

Terre Gâtée (Spoiled Earth) is a collaboration between Ivorian writer Marguerite Abouet (famous for the Aya de Yopougon series), the film director Charli Beleteau, and the prolific BD artist Christian De Metter.

The story tracks events and relationships in and around a bustling desert village which thrives due to an adjacent highway construction project. The road will serve as a main artery between sub-saharan Africa and the North; it therefore attracts transient migrants looking for work, not to mention distraction at the local bordello.

A couple of families responsible for managing the site are all too ready to exploit these passing travellers—as well as the nomadic tribes whose land their road encroaches upon more with each passing day. Tensions between various individuals and factions simmer from the start until they inevitably boil over into violent confrontation.