This film is so deeply complex that it is difficult to choose what to address. The overarching idea that connects all of the different threads in this documentary is the past. I found it particularly compelling the way the dessert represented this past and how it functioned as an archive. It was an archive of a variety of stories and pasts: it was an archive of ancient civilizations that used this dessert as an area of transit. Its sky is an archive of human existence because it holds the evidence of how life as we know it came to fruition. It is also an archive of the country’s corrupt and violent political past as the corpses of political prisoners were disposed of there. The characters themselves are archives as well. Some characters hold on to their memories as a way of holding on to their power. Memory and history is a tool.