After every launch from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome, booster rockets and debris fall on the villages in its flightpath, breaking through roofs and burning through steppes. The villagers ride over on their horses and scavenge precious metals drenched in highly toxic rocket fuel. Having witnessed her father suffer through the health consequences of scavenging, a young girl tries to make the village change its ways, but financial desperation has a greater say.

Photo by Jonas Bendiksen.