Darwin’s Nightmare

Alarming, Oscar nominated film on how the international fish and weapon trade near Lake Victoria consumes the poor population. A couple of decades ago, the Nile perch was planted in the lake in order to conduct a scientific experiment. It turned out that this rapacious fish was such a sturdy survivor that in no time almost all other fish species living in the gigantic lake became extinct.

The demand for Nile perch filet on the global market increased, so a large-scale fish industry developed in the region. The soberly registered images of the fishing town Mwanza in Tanzania reveal a degrading situation. While hundreds of tons of Nile perch fillet are flown to Europe and Japan every day, the starving local population is forced to bake up a frugal meal from fish-offal. Meanwhile, loads of armaments are flown into the continent on the flight in; the bloody African wars appear to be very lucrative to many. Award-winning film on how the international fish and weapon trade near Lake Victoria consumes the poor population.

Darwin's Nighmare is the Chosen by pick by director Roger Ross Williams.