Darwin's Nightmare

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Movie
German title Darwin's nightmare
Original title Darwin's Nightmare
Country of production France
Austria
Belgium
original language English
Publishing year 2004
length 107 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 10
Rod
Director Hubert Sauper
script Hubert Sauper
production Edouard Mauriat ,
Hubert Sauper,
Hubert Toint ,
coop99 ( Barbara Albert , Martin Gschlacht , Antonin Svoboda )
camera Hubert Sauper, Alexander Rieder
cut Denise Vindevogel

Darwin's Nightmare is a French-Belgian-Austrian documentary film by Austrian director Hubert Sauper from 2004. The multi-award-winning film documents the ecological and economic catastrophe on Lake Victoria in East Africa , which occurred when the Nile perch was released. The title Darwin's Nightmare was only used in Germany, in Austria and Switzerland the film was shown under its original title Darwin's Nightmare . The film premiered on January 20, 2005.

In Austria, the film attracted around 45,000 visitors to the cinemas. Internationally, Darwin's Nightmare was able to record at least half a million visitors, although only figures for France, Sweden, Spain and England are available. The film is one of 50 films that were released on DVD in the first part of the edition “ The Austrian Film ”.

content

In an experiment in the 1960s, 35 Nile perch were released in Lake Victoria , a species of predatory fish that had not previously been found in this lake. The aim was to promote the regional fishing industry with this highly reproductive food fish . But the consequences of this encroachment on nature were unimaginably catastrophic for the lake's fauna - over 400 different species of fish were exterminated by the voracious predator within 30 years. Because there are no more algae-eating fish, the lake is now heavily eutrophicated and the oxygen concentration in the deeper layers of the lake is constantly falling.

Out of economic interests, the neighboring countries have not done anything against this mass extinction, as the sale of the Nile perch under the name Victoria perch is extremely profitable. However, this does not benefit the local population in any way. The film documents that only a few profit from export profits, while tens of thousands of people become unemployed, lose their traditional livelihoods and livelihoods and ultimately have to live (and work) under inhumane conditions. Even if the film does not provide any direct references to this connection, it gives the impression that at least part of the profit is spent on buying weapons. It is repeatedly suggested that the transport aircraft will fly to Europe with the valuable fish fillets and return to Tanzania laden with weapons . At first the pilots deny knowing what they are delivering from Europe, but finally a Russian pilot tearfully admits that weapons were being transported. In the end, you all know beforehand.

In the film, Sauper is not only interested in the political context, but is also touchingly close to the people involved. Its main characters are Russian pilots, unemployed fishermen and people who try their luck coming from the hinterland. The economic hardship that often sets in quickly forces many women into prostitution , which in turn results in a large number of new HIV infections, with shocking death rates among fishermen. The local authorities seem powerless in all of this, corruption is the order of the day, and representatives of the UN , the EU and the World Bank are either clueless or disinterested.

background

A story about people in the north and south, about globalization ... and about fish.

Sauper came across this story while working on a documentary about the civil war in Rwanda in 1997. On an airfield in Mwanza , Tanzania, he observed how one plane was simultaneously unloading UN food aid for Rwandan refugees and another plane for fresh fish fillets Europe were invited. Shaken by this cynical reality, Sauper investigated the matter and, in his own words, shot what he called "the greatest personal and cinematic undertaking to date."

Only with a personal assistant and his handheld camera was Sauper able to stay close to the people involved. He made friends with some pilots who willingly told him about their explosive flights. The greatest difficulty with the filming , which often took place in secret, was dealing with the local police and the military. Most of the film budget had to be spent on bribes with which Sauper could buy himself and his companion free.

There were heated debates about this film in France. However, it is debatable whether the scenario the film creates corresponds to reality. Based on field research, it has been suggested that the changes initiated by the release of the Nile Perch have had some positive effects on the local population.

In the course of this debate, the newspaper Le Monde quoted an unspecified "specialist in the African arms trade" who affirmed the "triangular trade" for fish and arms: the Russian transport machines left Eastern Europe with weapons on board and delivered their cargo to African governments. Then they flew to Libya, Sudan or Egypt to refuel the machines there inexpensively, and finally to Mwanza to load fish or flowers there. This last stage finances the return trip, which costs 40,000 dollars in fuel. In Mwanza itself one sees nothing of the trade, since the operation will already be completed when the machines landed there.

The film's nomination for an Oscar in 2006 in the Best Documentary Film category ultimately turned out to be a nightmare for director Sauper that cost him two years of his life. The publicity achieved by the nomination triggered a "hate campaign" against him and the people he let have their say in the film or who supported him on location with the film. Some of them have been politically persecuted and imprisoned. Sauper sought and found support from the Austrian Foreign Ministry, which tried to obtain the release of the detainees through diplomatic channels.

criticism

In August 2006, the Tanzanian government alleged that Darwin's Nightmare had damaged Tanzania 's reputation and caused the fish trade to collapse.

The German journalist Roland Brockmann wrote under the title Rehabilitation of a Fish in the World : “The filmmaker transforms the 'strange success story' of a 'successful animal' into an allegory that reflected the new world order '. [...] The fish as the perfect metaphor for the injustice of the world, in which few benefit from the misery of many. ”Brockmann quotes, among others, the evolutionary ecologist Ole Seehausen from the University of Bern and the Federal Institute for Water Research (EAWAG), according to which the presentation of the ecological consequences in the film is "not very applicable". According to this, the lake “never really tipped” and the disappearance of around 200 species native to Lake Victoria was only indirectly caused by the Victoria perch. The main reasons he names the nutrient enrichment through the population increase around the lake as well as the settlement of industry and intensification of agriculture, which would have prepared the ground for the multiplication of the Victoria perch; a development that goes back to the 1920s. The Victoria perch get along better with the nutrient-rich water than the other species. In addition, Seehausen estimates the number of cichlid species in the deep water of the lake, where only one species was found in 1989, at around 30 species in 2004. According to Brockmann, the connections between the fishing industry and social change in the region around Mwanza shown in the film are also misrepresented: “The city lives rather from the gold industry; in nearby Geita, for example, there is one of the largest open gold mines in the world ( Geita open-cast mine ). The prostitutes [...] are less attracted by the Russian pilots or workers in the fish factories than by those gold mines. ”He also quotes Seehausen:“ Establishing a connection between prostitution and Victoria perch is total nonsense. ”

When asked about criticism, Sauper explained that he could have told his story in Sierra Leone, "only the fish would be a diamond, in Honduras a banana and in Angola, Nigeria or Iraq black oil."

Aurélien Ferenczi, editor of the French television magazine Télérama, defends Sauper's approach to “stage reality” for cinematic purposes, as the right of a committed artist. Sauper used his thesis for narrative purposes, because that is the best way to mobilize and provoke reactions. Ferenczi values ​​the film as art, which becomes clearly noticeable through the artificial side and the symbolic power.

Awards

Since its release, Darwin's Nightmare has won numerous awards at film festivals , including the 2004 Venice International Film Festival , the Viennale 2004 in Vienna and the 2005 Sydney Film Festival . Also in 2004, Darwin's Nightmare won the European Film Award for Best Documentary .

In February 2006 Darwin's Nightmare in Paris was awarded a César for best first work . At the 2006 Academy Awards , the film was nominated for Best Documentary .

literature

Web links

Reviews:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Age rating for Darwin's Nightmare . Youth Media Commission .
  2. Jump up ↑ Movie Starts: Darwin's Nightmare. Retrieved June 27, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Lumiere - Database of movie attendance figures in Europe
  4. ↑ weltwoche.ch ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.weltwoche.ch
  5. ↑ a b arte.tv ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arte.tv
  6. ↑ a b "[a nightmare] that cost me two years of my life". Hubert Sauper as part of the program “Oscar Night 2009”, section “The Round Table”, February 23, 2009, ORF 2, approx. 1.20 am to 1.30 am (20th to 30th minute of the program)
  7. ↑ derstandard.at
  8. ^ A b Roland Brockmann: Rehabilitation of a fish . In: Die Welt , August 15, 2005.