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Hubert Sauper, the film director. |
'Darwin's Nightmare!' A film with dark revelations
Darwin's Nightmare is a movie, a very latest one at that,
having been released only about two months ago. It was filmed last year, around
Lake Victoria and the end result is a disturbing documentary about sub-Saharan
African politics, negative impacts of globalization in Tanzania and the fish
industry environment threats to the lake.
Darwin's nightmare is expected to be screened here in Arusha on Thursday, the
27th of October, at the Via-Via gardens (Boma Museum), as from 8.15 p.m.
The Movie
This is a Hubert Sauper's acclaimed documentary, a compelling cautionary tale
that clearly shows how, in this age of globalization, things can easily evolve
in the worst possible of unforeseen ways. Back in the 1960s someone poured some
non-native fish species into Lake Victoria, a giant water body joining the three
East African countries.
The profoundly predatory Nile Perch was far bigger than its native rivals and,
in killing off most species, also had a deleterious effect on the human
population: farmers moved to the lake to become fishermen and satisfy the
European and Russian demand for fish, which in turn caused massive economic
change, sickness, poverty and, inevitably, political skulduggery.
Witty, provocative, angry and heart-breaking, this incisive, imaginative film
ranges wide in the subjects it covers. Filming undercover gave Sauper access to
an impressive array of people, from businessmen and pilots to prostitutes and EU
politicians, some of them alarmingly frank in their admissions. Less an exposé
of corrupt individuals than a terribly lucid investigation into mankind's mad
capacity for (self-)destruction.
The story synopsis
" .... Some time in the 1960's, in the heart of Africa, a new animal was
introduced into Lake Victoria as a little scientific experiment. The Nile Perch,
a voracious predator, extinguished almost the entire stock of the native fish
species. However, the new fish multiplied so fast, that its white fillets are
today exported all around the world ...."
" .... Huge hulking ex-Soviet cargo planes come daily to collect the latest
catch in exchange for their southbound cargo… Kalashnikovs and ammunition for
the uncounted wars in the dark center of the continent. This booming
multinational industry of fish and weapons has created an ungodly globalized
alliance on the shores of the world's biggest tropical lake: an army of local
fishermen, World bank agents, homeless children, African ministers, EU-commissioners,
Tanzanian prostitutes and Russian pilots ...."
From the film maker's point of view
We had to be very close to our "characters" and follow their lives over long
periods. I feel like they are an important part of my existence now. When you
look out for contrasts and contradictions, reality can become "bigger than
life". So in a way it was easy to find striking images because I was filming a
striking reality.
But it was also easy to get into trouble. On location in Tanzania we could never
really show up as a regular film team. In order to fly with cargo planes we had
to disguise ourselves as pilots and load-masters carrying fake identities. In
villages we were mistaken as missionaries, and in fish factories managers feared
we might be EU hygiene inspectors.
We had to become Australian businessmen in the fancy hotel bars, or just
harmless backpackers in the African bush, "taking pictures". Many days were lost
in front of sweating, confused and questioning police officers, on checkpoints
and in local prisons. A good part of the filming budget was wasted just paying
for our freedom in bribes and fines.
The national newspaper headlines and even the BBC in London declared, "French
and American journalists kidnaped by bandits on Lake Victoria". Since the writer
Nick Flynn from New York was traveling with us, the US embassy in Dar es Salaam
started frantically ringing the alarm for their lost citizens. There was no
kidnaping, however, but once again we had been held back on a remote fishing
island - this time accused of shooting "blue movies" with naked girls.
Nightmare in Mwanza streets
"Billed as a study of the Nile perch, a ruthlessly effective predator introduced
into Lake Victoria 30 years ago, Darwin's Nightmare is in fact hardly about that
at all. True, these giant fish are a constant presence in Hubert Sauper's
sobering documentary, but the focus is not the lake's ecosystem but the personal
stories of those who work in the fishing, filleting and transport industries
that have colonized the Tanzanian shore.
Every day, vast Russian planes arrive in Mwanza airport in the north west of the
country, leaving with a daily cargo of 500 tons of Nile perch destined for the
Russian and European markets. What these planes carry on their way into Africa
is a mystery that nobody wants to talk about, until a solitary,
subdued pilot admits that he flies tanks and other weapons into Angola.
That's where the real money lies. The fish are simply a bonus that fill up the
planes on the flight back to Europe. Most of the local people involved with the
Nile perch have no idea about the
hardware passing through their country. Many are grateful to the industry for
the employment it provides, but it attracts domestic problems too. The job
hunters flooding into the area encourage the spread of AIDS, while the large
number of men with a little cash in their pockets and nothing to spend it on
allows prostitution to flourish.
The cruellest irony is that while so much fish is exported to Europe, Tanzania
itself is struggling to avoid famine, so a secondary industry has grown up
drying and roasting the decayed, discarded fish carcasses, salvaging what
nourishment remains. Darwin's nightmare is a desperately sad story, told by
people who accept their plight with astonishing serenity. It is a great
injustice that not all of them live through to the end of filming."
Reviewed by: Valentine Marc Nkwame
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