Grand Prix Competition
US Premiere

DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE




Hubert Sauper

Country of production: France,Austria,Belgium
Year: 2004
Language: English, Swahili, Russian, Sukuma
Mins: 107

Production company: Mille et une productions, Paris; coop99 filmproduktion, Vienna
Saga Film, Bruxelles
Producers: Edouard Mauriat, Antonin Svoboda, Martin Gschlacht, Barbara Albert
Hubert Toint, Hubert Sauper
Script: Hubert Sauper
Cinematography: Hubert Sauper
Editing: Denise Vindevogel
Sound: Veronika Hlawatsch

Source: celluloid dreams
2 Rue Turgot,
75009 Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 4970 0370
Fax: + 33 1 4970 0371
e-mail: pascale@celluloid-dreams.com
www.celluloid-dreams.com


In the 1960s, scientists conducted an experiment in Eastern Africa. They introduced the Nile Perch, a voracious predator, to Lake Victoria, where it extinguished almost the entire stock of native fish. The new fish multiplied so fast that its white fillets were soon exported all around the world. Today, two million people eat Nile Perch every day, although the lakeside villagers who are completely dependent on the fishing industry for their living are too impoverished to afford it. In order to carry the fresh fish from the heart of Africa to the Western world, hulking ex-Soviet cargo planes come daily to collect the latest catch. But they also bring their own cargo -- Kalashnikovs and ammunition for the uncounted wars in the dark center of the continent. Hubert Sauper's gripping documentary investigates the booming multinational industry of fish and weapons which has created an ungodly global alliance: an army of local fishermen, World Bank agents, homeless children, African ministers, EU commissioners, Tanzanian prostitutes and Russian pilots. Best Documentary, European Film Awards; Vienna Film Prize, Viennale; NFB Documentary Award, Montreal; Best Film, Copenhagen Dox.

Hubert Sauper was born in Tyrol, Austrian. He lived in Great Britain, Italy, the States, and for ten years he,s based in France. He studied film directing in Vienna (Univ. of Performing Arts) and Paris (Univ. de Paris VIII.) He teaches film classes in Europe and the States. The last two documentaries he wrote and directed were awarded twelve International Film Prizes.
As an actor he played in several shorts and two feature length films: "IN THE CIRCLE OF THE IRIS" (Dir. Peter Patzak, with Philippe Léotard) and "BLUE DISTANCE" (Dir. Peter Schreiner).

Filmography (as writer and director)

DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE (2004)
ALONE WITH OUR STORIES (2000)
KISANGANI DIARY (1998)
LOMOGRAPHER’S MOSCOW (1995)
SO I SLEEPWALK IN BROAD DAYLIGHT (1994)
ON THE ROAD WITH EMIL (1993)

SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2005 AT 8.15 PM. / FACET CINEMATHEQUE
TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2005 AT 9.00 PM. / DOC FILMS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2005 AT 8.45 PM. / FACET CINEMATHEQUE