FEATURE

Oscars 2006: Best Documentary nomination for  DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE

The Austrian-French-Belgian coproduction deals with the dramatic effects of globalization. At the center of Austrian born director Hubert Sauper's gripping documentary is the Nile perch. The fish once artificially introduced into Lake Victoria, provoced an ecological desaster, but its tender fillets are successfully exported all around the world.

Ex-Soviet cargo planes come daily to collect the latest catch, in exchange for their southbound cargo: ammunitions for the uncounted wars in the dark centre of the continent. This booming multinational industry of food and weapons has created ungodly multicultural alliances on the shores of the world's biggest tropical lake: an army of young fishermen, Indian fish factory investors, African ministers, EU-commissioners, Russian pilots and Tanzanian prostitutes.

Darwin's Nightmare,
directed by Hubert Sauper, was produced by coop99 filmproduktion (Austria), mille et une productions (France) and Saga Film (Belgium)