Review
DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE
Directed and Written by Hubert Sauper
Opens Friday, July 8
Uptown Screen
Hubert Sauper’s Darwin’s Nightmare is the kind of documentary that fully transcends its subject matter to give a stunning portrait of humanity and tragedy.
Focusing initially on the introduction of the Nile Perch into Lake Victoria (the world’s largest tropical lake in Tanzania – so large it sources the Nile itself), Darwin’s Nightmare transforms from a study of one of the world’s largest fishing industries into a series of heartbreaking personal testimonies from those who have been negatively affected by the way the industry’s been handled.
The disturbingly unjust scope of the Lake Victoria fishing industry is easily apparent when you consider the math – each and every day the lake offers up more than 500 tons of fish, most of which goes to feed more than two million Europeans daily. Meanwhile, those who live near the lake and even those who work in the Tanzanian fishing industry live in poverty.
The root from which Darwin’s Nightmare takes shape is the examination of the Nile Perch itself. The Nile Perch was added to the ecosystem of Lake Victoria 40 years ago as a "little scientific experiment," and quickly turned predator, essentially taking over the waters and effectively killing off the other fish breeds.
What begins as an ecological analysis of the Nile Perch situation expands into a layered exposé of other problems in Africa, all tied into the very industry that has the potential to keep Tanzania afloat. Through a series of intimate interviews, the film gradually reveals the negative consequences of the Nile Perch experiment.
Sauper’s unblinking camera poignantly highlights stories of the people of Tanzania: a young orphaned prostitute sells herself to foreign pilots and fishermen for $10 a night; a night-shift watchman (replacing a predecessor who was murdered on the job) arms himself with poison-tipped arrows; a young artist’s brightly coloured portraits provide the only record of life on the streets.
Over the course of his investigations, however, Sauper also reveals a group of Russian pilots who come to Tanzania with their planes full of weapons for the civil war in Angola, and then leave with planes full of fish. Their cut-rate decadence propagates a prostitution industry that, when combined with the continent’s AIDS epidemic, leads to an even further spread of the virus. A desperate call to attention, Darwin’s Nightmare’s miniature analysis takes on the problems of Africa as a whole.
Capturing both the cruellest of ironies and a perilous global imbalance, Darwin’s Nightmare should be considered mandatory for anyone considering themselves, in the words of the street painter Jonathan, a "citizen of the world." |
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