Darwin's Nightmare is a 2004 French-Belgian-Austrian documentary film written and directed by Hubert Sauper, dealing with the environmental and social effects of the fishing industry around Lake Victoria in Tanzania.

Sometime in the 1960s, in the heart of Africa, a new animal was introducedinto Lake Victoria as a little scientific experiment. The Nile Perch, avoracious predator, extinguished almost the entire stock of the nativefish species. However, this new gigantic fish multiplied incrediblyfast, and its white fillets are today exported all around the world.Huge hulking ex-Soviet cargo planes come daily to collect the latestcatch in exchange for their southbound cargo: Kalashnikovs andammunitions for the uncounted wars in the dark center of the Africancontinent.

 

This booming multinational industry of fish and weapons has createdan ungodly globalized alliance on the shores of the world’s biggesttropical lake: an army of local fishermen, World Bank agents, homelesschildren, African ministers, EU-commissioners, Tanzanian prostitutesand Russian pilots. DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE brings us in close for anintimate and at times uncomfortable look at this world, and in doing sothis film deftly unpacks the puzzle of globalization in a visuallystunning and raw portrait of life on this planet.

 

Academy Award Nominee 2005 Best Documentary
Mostra de Venice Venice Days 2004 World Premiere
Montreal New Cinema 2004 Winner NFB Documentary Award
Viennale 2004 Winner Vienna Film Prize 2004
Copenhagen Dox 2004 Winner Best Film
European Film Awards 2004 Winner Best Documentary
Belfort 2005 Audience award best Documentary
Angers, France European First Film Festival Premiers Plans 2005 Grand Jury Prize
Silverdocs in US 2005 Grand prize Sterling Award
European First Film Festival Premiers Plans 2005 Grand Jury Prize
Paris festival de l’environnement 2005 Grand prix
Chicago Doc Festival 2005 Best Film
Thessaloniki Doc FF 2005 Audience Award
Oslo Eurodoc 2005 Norway Distribution Award
Mexico Cine Contemporain 2005 Best Documentary
Docaviv in Israel Grand Prix Best Film 2005