Tejas Nair

Cities on Speed: Cairo Garbage is a deadpan take on the huge garbage problem in the Egyptian capital, and although it was filmed in 2009, the message still seems to ring true now in 2020. It is a documentary that makes you realize how simple it might be where you live and it's apparent that the condition will most likely be better than how it is in Cairo. People, after having been dependent on door-to-door garbage collection for decades, now throw their refuse on the streets. There is no proper state-sponsored garbage collection or waste management, which has resulted in private companies entering the field, largely to no great impact. All of this is narrated in this cool 50-minute documentary that is a lot unbiased (it interviews two people and also captures the irony - they have the garbage problem yet they litter the streets unknowingly). I don't know why they chose that merry jingle to go with the animation but it's still a good watch about the problems associated with garbage collection in a big city like Cairo. **Grade B**. (Watched at the 2020 IIHS UrbanLens Film Festival.)