Who would have suspected that a 45 minute documentary about women crushing rocks, with no narration or plot, would provide one of the most unforgettable experiences of recent African cinema? Flora M'mbugu-Schelling's quiet tribute to women at the very bottom of the international economic order deepens into a profound mediation on human labor itself. These Hands stimulates viewers to rethink the documentary, their role as its consumers and, indeed, as consumers in a global industrial system.