DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE
Hubert Sauper
Land: Österrike
2004
Längd: 107

Det blir inte bättre än så här. Dokumentären Darwins mardröm träffar som en fet käftsmäll. Genom bisarra, avslöjande och skakande scener från en stad vid Victoriasjöns strand tecknas bilden av människans enastående förmåga att vid behov blunda hårt. Något är ohyggligt fel, men vad? Fattiga fiskare, ryska piloter, EU-representanter, präster, prostituerade, gatubarn, hiv-drabbade, alla ger de i närvaro av kameran sitt bidrag till gåtans lösning. Darwins mardröm är en journalistisk deckare och ett dokumentärt mästerverk. Filmen knyter samman ekologisk enfald, internationell handel, väpnade konflikter, bistånd och ett befängt exportfrämjande.

DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE
Director: Hubert Sauper
Austria
2004
107 minutes

Through interviews with the Russian and Ukrainian plane crew, local factory owners, guards, prostitutes, fishermen and other villagers, the film discusses the effects of the introduction of the Nile Perch to Lake Victoria, how it has affected the ecosystem and economy of the region. The film also dwells at length on the dichotomy between European aid which is being funneled into Africa on the one hand, and the unending flow of munitions and weapons from European arms dealers on the other. Arms and munitions are often flown in on the same planes which transport the Nile Perch fillets to European consumers, feeding the very conflicts which the aid was sent to remedy. As Dime, the radio engineer of the plane crew says later on in the film: the children of Angola receive guns for Christmas, the children Europe receive grapes. The appalling living and working conditions of the indigenous people, in which basic sanitation is completely absent and many children turn to drugs and prostitution, is covered in great depth; because the Nile Perch fish is farmed commercially, all the prime fillets are sold to European supermarkets, leaving the local people to survive on the festering carcasses of the gutted fish.