I find the earlier criticism laughable...and sad, in that we're so used to Michael Moore esquire films now that shove their meanings down our throats that when something comes along that makes you actually have to think...and draw your own conclusions, everyone is up in arms.
Darwin's Nightmare is a look at the economic and social impact of one small decision made fifty years ago-the release of a bucket full of Nile Perch into Lake Victoria. Over time, these fish have eaten everything else in the lake, yet have also spawned a huge export business of whitefish fillets to Europe. The film records the huge cost this business has exacted on the Tanzanian community. They share in none of the profits and all of the consequences from a corrupt state, exploitation from overseas business interests and the collision of modern technology with a social infrastructure left in shambles by decades of war and poverty.
Without commentary from the filmmakers, or the popular "cut and paste" bombast of so many current documentarians, we are forced to draw our own conclusions. There are no villains among the people we meet on screen, yet everyone plays their role in a desperate human tragedy.
A real eye opener, maybe the closest many of us will ever get to the appalling conditions many endure the world over through no fault of their own save the place of their birth.
Darwin's Nightmare is a look at the economic and social impact of one small decision made fifty years ago-the release of a bucket full of Nile Perch into Lake Victoria. Over time, these fish have eaten everything else in the lake, yet have also spawned a huge export business of whitefish fillets to Europe. The film records the huge cost this business has exacted on the Tanzanian community. They share in none of the profits and all of the consequences from a corrupt state, exploitation from overseas business interests and the collision of modern technology with a social infrastructure left in shambles by decades of war and poverty.
Without commentary from the filmmakers, or the popular "cut and paste" bombast of so many current documentarians, we are forced to draw our own conclusions. There are no villains among the people we meet on screen, yet everyone plays their role in a desperate human tragedy.
A real eye opener, maybe the closest many of us will ever get to the appalling conditions many endure the world over through no fault of their own save the place of their birth.