Sound
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NOLLA
The Number One Ladies’ Landmine Agency follows a team of Sahrawi women clearing landmines along the 2,700-kilometre berm that divides Western Sahara, the wall its people call the Wall of Shame, told by a Sahrawi presenter who grew up in the refugee camps. For the BBC’s radio documentary, WithFeeling designed the sound and built the soundscapes that put the listener in the desert beside them.
THE CHALLENGE
NOLLA, The Number One Ladies’ Landmine Agency, is a BBC documentary podcast following a remarkable group of Sahrawi women who clear landmines along the world’s longest minefield in Western Sahara, working in punishing heat far from help. The challenge for a story this powerful is honouring its weight: a sound tense, human and quietly heroic, carrying the danger and dignity of their work so listeners feel every ounce of their courage.
THE APPROACH
Radio has no pictures, so the desert had to be built: heat, wind and sand underfoot, the detector’s tone, the countdown and thump of a controlled detonation, the silence around a find, all placed under real voices so the tension is felt without a dramatised effect ever getting in the way of the truth.
THE RESULT
Thirty-five minutes that sound like being there, and a soundscape that lets the women’s courage speak for itself.
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