Bab al Jemen - Een poort van Jemen

Less than thirty years ago the Islamic country of Yemen was almost completely cut off from the world. It had only one telephone and the gates of the capital Sana'a were literally locked from evening till morning. When large quantities of oil were struck, this situation changed rapidly. The social consequences were not long in coming: alcohol was introduced, many women did away with their veil, and mixed schools were established. At least, this took place in the South, where the oilfields are located. The North remained traditional. The tension between the two parts of the country kindled the civil war that broke out last year. Filmmaker Walther Grotenhuis was in Yemen six months before the war erupted. By sowing portraits of well?diggers, housewives, sheikhs, qat?growers and oil barons, he bares the tension between tradition and modernization.