As a result of the excessive irrigation of the desert, Lake Aral Lake in Uzbekistan has shrunk dramatically in size. The inhabitants of the former fishing village Mujnak are resigned to their cheerless situation. ‘Be happy with what you have. Then at least you will not run the risk of things getting even worse.’ Catching fish is no longer possible, their ships are now miles from the coastline like beached whales. The father of Orazbai spends his days on a beached fishing boat. But Orazbai, armed with a photo of the skyline of Manhattan, goes off in search of a better life. He stows away on a freighter hoping it will take him to New York. But he finds himself in watery Rotterdam. There he meets Katharina, who takes him into her house. He soon gets on famously with her son Maarten. The world would be good to Orazbai, if the father of Maarten wouldn’t throw a spanner in the works.In the form of a beautiful love story, Van Lieshout tells a topical tale. The uprooted stowaway is looking for water, for a place he can hunt his dreams, a place that not everyone wants him to have. The dramatic sight of the drought-ridden Aral is as impressive as it is disconsolate – yet it still proves possible to take water to the desert.
