2020, France, Morocco 90’, Dir. Olivier Julien, French / Turkish subtitles
A discovery in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco has turned the history of our species, Homo sapiens, upside down. In June 2017, an international team made the shocking announcement that they had found fossils proving that our human ancestors were already living in northwest Africa 300,000 years ago. Until then, paleontologists believed that Homo sapiens did not arise until 100,000 years later, and East Africa was said to be the cradle of our species. The discovery in Irhoud is a game-changer. It is the culmination of a 30-year international effort to bring North Africa back into the equation of our origins. Irhoud is a sizable new piece in an intricate puzzle, opening our eyes to a new vision of Africa in early human times. It changes the whole storyline of the evolution of humankind.