User Reviews

Slavery, colonization, genocide and civil war have marked the history of Africa. In Hubert Sauper's powerful documentary Darwin's Nightmare, we witness the latest humiliation -- globalization, euphemistically called the New World Order. Darwin's Nightmare is about fish, specifically the Nile Perch in Tanzania's Lake Victoria, but the theme is the exploitation of the natural resources of one country for the benefit of others. In this case, 500 tons of white fillets are caught each day, then exported to Europe to feed two million people each day while the villagers who cannot afford the perch are forced to live on the heads and carcasses that the factories have discarded. While the film is about fish, Sauper explains that he "could make the same kind of movie in Sierra Leone, only the fish would be diamonds, in Honduras, bananas, and in Libya, Nigeria or Angola, crude oil".

Because of over fishing, the Nile Perch was artificially introduced into Lake Victoria in the late 1950s but it was an experiment gone wrong. The Nile Perch became the lake's predator, destroying the existing species of fish, even devouring its young, and devastating the natural ecology of the lake. With the collapse of a stable economy, local fisherman and farmers became dependent on the export business and the result was famine, poverty, HIV, prostitution, and drug addiction. The director says, "It is so incredible that wherever prime raw material is discovered, systematically the locals die in misery, their sons become soldiers and their daughters are turned into servants and whores".

The film does not rely on narration to tell its story. It is told by the Russian pilots who bring in munitions to feed wars in Angola and the Congo, then return to Europe with tons of fillets destined for European markets. The story is told by a prostitute who sings lovingly of Tanzania and dreams of an education, by a guard at a processing plant who earns $1 a day and hopes for his son to become a pilot. Armed only with a bow and poison-tipped arrows, he welcomes the thought of a war. We also hear from a Christian minister who buries local residents who died of AIDS but still refuses to recommend condoms because it is a "sin". All seem powerless in a system that worships the wrong values. One Russian pilot, hoping that one day all the world's children will be happy says: "Children in Angola receive weapons on Christmas Day, European children receive grapes. That's business but I wish all children could receive grapes".

While some claim that the fish-packing operation raises the standard of living, the evidence is otherwise. Some may benefit but the workers earn starvation wages and the country is reported to be in the midst of a famine. Darwin's Nightmare takes a strong stand but does not preach even though its images are often painfully direct. One of the most memorable scenes is of an African woman standing in the sun among the rotting fish carcasses and maggots claiming that her life is better than others, even though one eye has been clearly destroyed by ammoniac gases. This isn't Darwin's nightmare, it's our own.

Darwin's Nightmare is a shocking look at how globalization has caused a country to condemn the majority of its starving population to slavery, prostitution and drug addiction while every day over-fed Europeans dine off of its vast stocks of Nile Perch.

The setting is Lake Victoria, Tanzania, the world's biggest tropical lake, and the Nile Perch (artificially introduced by man) has voraciously destroyed every other species of fish unfortunate to cross its path. Most of those lucky enough to have jobs, fish on the lake and sell their catch to be exported far away to Western Europe. None of the locals can afford to eat the meat of the Perch themselves. They're reduced to scraping together some kind of nightmarish sustenance from the left over rotten fish heads (crawling with maggots) that wouldn't even make it into pet food tins for the west.

Of course, prostitution, drug addiction and HIV are all rife. Everyone knows someone who has died from the 'virus'. Large groups of orphaned homeless children sleep rough on the streets at night. And just to ensure that this convenient state of affairs remains in place (and, of course, to make a nice tidy profit), the vast 'empty' cargo planes arriving from Europe actually seem to be (illegally) laden with weaponry to be sold onto the genocidal wars in Africa. The planes are then packed full of huge amounts of Tanzania's abundant supplies of fish (at times to the point that they're too heavy to take off), and flown back out of the country while the majority of its population face the bleak prospect of famine.

This film is a real eye opener and is genuinely shocking. It should be compulsory viewing for anyone enjoying the privileges of the Western lifestyle.

I find the earlier criticism laughable...and sad, in that we're so used to Michael Moore esquire films now that shove their meanings down our throats that when something comes along that makes you actually have to think...and draw your own conclusions, everyone is up in arms.

Darwin's Nightmare is a look at the economic and social impact of one small decision made fifty years ago-the release of a bucket full of Nile Perch into Lake Victoria. Over time, these fish have eaten everything else in the lake, yet have also spawned a huge export business of whitefish fillets to Europe. The film records the huge cost this business has exacted on the Tanzanian community. They share in none of the profits and all of the consequences from a corrupt state, exploitation from overseas business interests and the collision of modern technology with a social infrastructure left in shambles by decades of war and poverty.

Without commentary from the filmmakers, or the popular "cut and paste" bombast of so many current documentarians, we are forced to draw our own conclusions. There are no villains among the people we meet on screen, yet everyone plays their role in a desperate human tragedy.

A real eye opener, maybe the closest many of us will ever get to the appalling conditions many endure the world over through no fault of their own save the place of their birth.

There are no spoilers on this one, not even a hint about what you'll find in this movie. If you ask me, I would tell you to read on to the end of this text. You'll know how I felt, but not what the movie is about: you should see it unknowingly. Let it take you by surprise. For a very long time, no movie made me feel like leaving the theatre. But, having this policy of always giving the director a chance to either create a last-minute surprise effect or to prove himself ridiculous to an unspoken degree, I usually stay - even if I would vote zero for some. "Darwin's Nightmare" had me moving in my seat, sweating, swallowing nonexistent saliva, squeezing my hands into each other, thinking about all and nothing. Two times I simply had to close my eyes, many times I thought I had to get up and go - not that the documentary film was bad. Quite the opposite. Formally, it was too good. That's why it was so bothering. Maybe an overly emotional reaction, but we will all have different ones. Personally, this is the type of story I cannot dissociate of, and view as a spectator. This is the world, and this is tragic. Now: we all know it. We just didn't see it like this before. Not with this cutting-edge cruelty.

I could feel the tension around me, the tension inside the theatre, the discomfort that it rose. Yet, the laughter that a few purpose-made cynical scenes originated hurt like knives. I couldn't believe people laughed in such a movie (and then again, I heard people laughing during "Schindler's List"!!).

There is no reason to laugh. A few times, actually, there are plentiful reasons to cry. This movie hurts. It's poignant to the point of being unbearable. Sad. Tragic. Violent - the story is cruel, and Hubert is cruel as well. Or realistic. He does not make it one bit easier for the viewer. Rather is the viewer allowed to suffer, to sink in shame, to open his/her mouth in awe, to see reality, the dark reality of many places exactly as it is. Besides all, presented in a very intelligent format, and with a cunning sense of fairness and discipline. It was painful. It worked on me, and I only wished it would be over. Personally, this was no film, this was a severe blow in my stomach. I wonder how will it feel to those who actually have no idea about life... 10 out of 10. How could I give it less...?

This is a film that must be seen by anybody who is concerned about world issues. It is a real eye-opener that presents the situation in Tanzania exactly as it is. It doesn't make it easy for the viewer - the conclusion you come to is a painful one, after witnessing experiences that end up making you feel as though you are there with the characters.

The full details of each issue are not explored, but this is not a problem as you come away with a thorough overview of the whole scenario, the visions of people from all perspectives having been represented.

I especially liked the raw reality of the film; nowadays we are constantly presented with images of third world suffering that distance 'us' from 'them' - this film does not allow that sort of comfort thinking, but more highlights this issue as part of a colossal world injustice.

A documentary about poverty, globalization, the Nile Perch fish, Africa...and far more. I resoundingly agree with everything this documentary is ABOUT, but I wasn't altogether enthused about THIS documentary.

Beginning with the case of the Nile Perch fish (which was introduced into Tanzania's Lake Victoria and subsequently eradicated all other species in the Lake), the film branches out into every direction imaginable.

The film is essentially presented as an introduction to the ideas of capitalism and globalization, but doesn't introduce the viewer to anything beyond the surface, nor does it draw overt links between any of its ideas. Darwin's Nightmare attempts to use the existence of the Nile Perch as a case study exemplifying the ails of globalization, but doesn't do so very effectively.

Granted, the film is emotionally raw and moving, and our theatre, too, sat in still silence as the credits rolled, however, a similar reaction could be gained if the World Vision television spot was played in the theatre. Powerful? Yes. A great documentary? No.

It seems that a common critique of this film is that it lacks focus and asks questions but does not provide answers. Far from agreeing that this proves lack of skill in film making, I think this demonstrates the director's analysis and knowledge of the documentary form. I felt that the filmmaker was conveying Western complicity in this by leaving us to try to put the pieces together ourselves. We thereby actually have to THINK about what he is getting at and the role we have to play in this situation. There is no voice-over in this film, which we are so used to explaining the meaning of a story to us. I think a lesson is better learned when we draw the conclusions ourselves, rather than being blatantly told how to interpret information in a documentary.

When the doc-movie was over people stayed in their seats for minutes in total silence. It's a hard movie that will shake your mind and heart in a terrible way. poverty, diseases, abuse, and a hopeless future. African people just don't deserve this present and future .....a story that happens now in too many places in the world were social structures are falling apart because of the international globalization of economics, were the rich get richer and the poor get poorer if that is even possible.....

sad sad movie but anyone that want to keep his eyes open what is happening in the world should see.

How can we accept that people have to live in such conditions. I was shocked after seeing this documentary. And...this business is supported by the European Union. Unbelievable. The local people doesn't benefit at all. The planes are used to bring weapons into Africa ant to export fish. How immoral. Local people are starving from aids and hunger but no help is provides. Every day dozens of planes are landing but no help for the local population. It a real scandal. Why is there no reaction. The documentary is really useful to let us see the true about what is going on out there in Tansania. Everybody should see this movie and react.

Greetings again from the darkness. One cannot dispute the importance of this story. Children are starving and adults are dying. The presentation of the story; however, lacks focus, direction and clarity. Documentaries should be held to a minimum standard and an important topic is merely the basics.

The story centers around Tanzania's Lake Victoria and the ever-worsening existence of the villagers as they become victims of capitalism. The locals seem to have no comprehension of their bleak future as the ecosystem in the lake dies. It is dying because of an apparent science experiment gone bad. A "bucket" of Nile Perch were introduced and since have destroyed all other forms of life including the algae eaters that keep them alive and their own offspring, which threatens their future.

Where the filmmaker succeeds is asking questions. Where he fails is providing any answers. Why have the villagers forsaken their farming efforts for fishing when they are starving? Why do the religious leaders not accept the use of condoms as the HIV virus spreads like wildfire? Why the introduction of a possible conspiracy on arms shipments with not even the slightest hint of evidence? Again, the message is not lost despite the shoddy presentation. However, this message could have been much more powerful with just a bit of structure in the story telling. This one gets an Oscar nod due to subject matter, not artistic merit.

I'm sorry to say that, but this is actually one of the worst documentaries i have EVER seen.

Due to its name "Darwin's Nightmare" i expected a documentary on problems relating to the Nile perch in Lake Victoria.

What I actually saw in this "documentary" is a loose accumulation of individual stories, most of which have no relation to neither fish nor lake. And for a large part you can hardly call them stories - it's more like some accumulated scenes that lack a meaningful connection...

Why does this movie waste time on: - Showing us non-relevant information on the families of the Russian pilots (several minutes are wasted for example on their private digicam snapshots of wives and daughters) - Mourning the death of an African child who got bitten by a crocodile (as if that could not have happened without the Nile perch) - Showing us about 100 times how planes land and start at the airport - Showing us strange religious events for several minutes - Discussing in detail the life and death of a whore at the airport - Talking to kids about their mothers, fathers - what they work and/or how they died (well, guess what: some died of HIV - who would have guessed that?) Those are just some examples, i could go on for several pages...

This movie is absolutely unfocused, and does not know at all what it wants to tell the viewer. If you have never heard of Africa and have no idea that this continent has Social/Health/HIV/Violence/War problems then this movie might be right for you. If you haven't had your eyes closed for the last decades 90% of what this movie shows won't be new to you - and the way it's presented here will try its best to make you fall asleep.

Perhaps my expectations on this movie were to high, but i really didn't like it even though this is a topic that I would generally find interesting. If this movie wants to show how the poverty is related to the Nile perch, than it perhaps should have spent some time on discussing that matter...

DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE is truly that: a nightmare. Filmed on-location in Tanzania along the banks of the massive Lake Victoria, director Hubert Sauper puts the lens of his camera in the face of everyone involved in this human atrocity …from those who aid it, to those at the bottom of its global circumstances.

The focus is on the gigantic Nile Perch, a freshwater fish of unbelievable size, who was unfortunately introduced to Lake Victoria and has decimated the native fish population. On the upside, however, is the new economy brought by the Nile Perch. Million dollar fish packing operations abound and jobs are available …but only to a few hundred natives. The remainder live in squalor and on starvation's doorstep. All of the fish, without exception, is flown out of Africa to richer, more affluent, neighboring continents (mostly Europe). The money being made by the IMF and a few select companies is impressive, but can it last? Mr. Sauper has done something extraordinary. Without putting in any bias, he has allowed this story to unfold on its own. I've never, EVER, seen a documentary like this. I was appalled by the educational system in Tanzania (basically nonexistent) and yet startled by the realization that none of the Tanzanians know or care about the globalization that is causing much of their problems (again, an educational issue). One of the natives that Mr. Sauper interviewed even wished that war would spill over from Angola and into Tanzania so that he could have "better work". Incredible! AIDS, of course, is an ever present item in Africa, and Tanzania is no exception. But the additional problem here is that there are few facilities to care for the infected. On many of the large islands on Lake Victoria, there are no doctors, hospitals, or dispensaries. Prostitution is widespread as women become widowed and have no source of income. Children are on the street, fighting for fists full of rice, early victims of AIDS after losing their parents. And what is the world doing about this …? The hidden side-story in the documentary is "what's on the planes when they land in Tanzania." High-level officials say, "Nothing." But truth be told (by one of the pilots interviewed) sometimes weapons are shipped in on the planes, destined for war-torn areas of Africa. No food. No humanitarian supplies. Nothing else makes it in to Tanzania. We (the world) take from Africa, and all we give it is more death and destruction. This isn't stated directly in the film, but is easily surmised through the interviews.

Finally, there's the airport. Almost as much a character in the film as anyone, this landing field (I hesitate to call it an airport) is a ramshackle building with flies, bees, and broken equipment, resulting in many airliner mishaps throughout the years. A testament to the unspoken fact that the world has no intentions of developing this area. We'll take until there's nothing left, then we'll leave Tanzania and her people to her final verdict. Death!

As documentaries go, this is a very hard one to watch and follow. Very little music, a lot of descriptive silences and hand camera footage, etc. The title is way too good for such a movie, which automatically means people watch it with higher expectations than they should and come out disappointed.

The story itself has almost nothing to do with Darwin, but more with the exploitation of the lake Victoria area, a lake that is almost as large as Ireland or a third of Romania. Some time ago, a fish (the perch) was introduced in the lake as a scientific experiment. The fish managed to thrive and destroy almost all other fish in the lake. A foreignly financed fish industry evolved to capitalize the fish, with an estimated market of at least 2 million in Europe.

The story also tells about the drought period in which about 2 million people were starving to death and asking for UN help, while their food was being flown away in "fish planes". Some of the images in this villages of fishermen and hookers are plainly gruesome, like a child playing in a field of rotting fish heads with works crawling over them.

Bottom line: the film is not very well done, but makes a valid point. It accurately describes the way in which poor Africans are bled dry by the industrial corporations, destroying entire people, destroying the life of all species in lake Victoria, destroying the very spring of the river Nile, only for money. If you want to be informed, you should watch it.

It takes place in Tanzania on the edge of Lake Victoria and there are prostitutes getting killed by their johns and fat repulsive Russian and Ukrainian mercenary pilots supposedly flying in with arms and out with tons of fish, and poor boys on the street sniffing glue and the huge lake stuffed with giant ugly fish that are killing everything else, and people all around the lake starving or dying of AIDS or both, while the fish is shipped out to Europe to the great profit of somebody, not the locals, or certainly not the local poor. This stunning and depressing revelation of a very specific example of the perils and evils of globalization won a lot of prizes, especially in France, two years ago, and has just been shown at Film Forum in New York as part of a "non-fiction films" series chosen by Werner Herzog.

It is any surprise this film is controversial? Notably a professor at the University of Paris 1, Francois Garçon, attacked 'Darwin's Nightmare' early on, stating certain important objections. The president of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, doesn't like it either. Between them they claim:

--that the bulk of the giant fish (Nile perch) that are fileted and exported to Europe from Lake Victoria is consumed locally, not the reverse.

--that there's no proof of anyone purchasing arms in the area. The film has no affirmation of or image of arms shipments coming in on the cargo planes that take out the fish.

--that the city of Mwanza, where much of the film is shot, is made to appear like a poor shanty town in the film but is in fact the second largest city in Tanzania (after Dar el Salaam).

--that a lot of the people interviewed, including the pilots, the prostitutes, and the blue-sniffing street boys, are intoxicated.

The filmmaker, Garçon and Kirwete point out, tends to look only at the bad things, the poor, the starving, the sick, and the morally dubious, or those he implies are so (the Russian and Ukrainian pilots).

Hubert Sauper's documentary hit theaters in March 2005 to rave reviews in France and got the César for Best First Film in 2006 and Best Documentary at the European Film Awards. It was a nominee for Best Documentary at the Oscars in 2006; received the FIPRESCI Prize in Sidney and top festival awards in Mexico City, Vienna, Venice – and that is not the end of its festival exposure.

'Darwin's Nightmare' is a kind of "shock cinema," using a whole range of disturbing images – rotting carcasses of giant fish (you may not want to see a fish head again for a while), legless boys, a woman with a missing eye, a starving woman with AIDS. The filmmaker does not add overt commentary but his positions are clear enough: Africa is getting exploited. Food is taken out, arms come in, all to the benefit of western Europe, the "Darwinian nightmare" of the non-native fish destroying the life of a great lake is not being addressed but is heedless economic exploitation of a market production advantage.

Kirwete is interested in large scale economic development. Is he looking at the larger picture? Garçon's CV reveals past connections in the food industry that link him with Mcdonald's, a major user of Nile perch.

Certain facts seem not to have been refuted by opponents of the film. The Nile perch, introduced in the 1960's, has wiped out almost all other fauna in Lake Victoria. Whether the large cargo planes come in empty or with cargo, there is no information that they are bringing benefits to the locals. The Russian and Ukrainian mercenary pilots have flown arm shipments in the past, by their own admission.

If Sauper's interviewees are drunken and/or impoverished (and some of them are perfectly clear-headed), a likely reason for the lack of government officials or local government-approved "experts" giving opinions on the situation may very well be that Sauper's project was not looked upon with favor by Tanzanian authorities and he was forced to operate in secret. The disease, the starvation, the life on one euro a day, that the film documents lakeside may not represent the majority life of Mwanza City,l but it exists there.

On the other hand, though the Indian-origin fish factory manager filmed says that hard times are coming, Sauper does not deny that the Nile perch filet business has been lively and profitable for Tanzania. Government objections to negative views of the fish situation are shown.

However, Sauper, who is of Austrian origin, has not claimed to be objective. He responded after Garçon's attack by saying that he is "not a journalist but a filmmaker." He said in Le Monde, "I did not go out to show Africa as it is, but as I see it. All the films of the world are like that. Not a film in the world can say that it is objective; that's the nature of the medium." The charge that Sauper's approach is "miserablist" is justifiable. But his sense that Africa is exploited by the rich nations of the world is shared by Abderrahmane Sissako, whose recent 'Bamako' is an indictment of the IMF and World Bank that simply considers on a much larger scale what Sauper gives a particular example of. (Sauper has also said that Africa is not alone in being exploited thus, that he could have made his film in many other places.) Certainly Sauper's methods and the implications of 'Darwin's Nightmare' should not be taken without question. Garcon's challenge has spearheaded a controversy and debate that can only be valuable for the film and for its subject matter.

Note: Garçon's book is repeatedly cited in English online as "The Other Side of Darwin's Nightmare," but its French title is "Enquête sur Le Cauchemar de Darwin" ("An Investigation of 'Darwin's Nightmare'") and there is no indication of an English version pending.

As very well explained in another review, this is a documentary on the social, economic and environmental effect of fishing the Nile perch in Tanzania's Lake Victoria. It ends up mirroring a real social hell of our greedy south-north commercial interchange. It is definitely not recommended for people suffering of some sort of depression, the images of how small innocent children need to survive is absolutely heart-breaking and it seems to take all the beauty of their bursting energy out forcing us (air-conditioned movie watchers) to face reality. There is also a good coverage of how perverse economic trades take place on detriment of the local people and in the benefit of some mysterious well off people skies away (in this case called Europe but the idea behind could be any power of rabid colonialism). There is no much environmental content though, the biodiversity loss that the predatory fish has on the Lake has as maximum '3 minutes of the whole movie. A well intentioned review of human misery.

A really good movie showing the capitalistic endless search for new "pools" to extract surplus. We simply wouldn't know if there weren't documentarists like these who showed us. I've watched the movie with left and right wingers, and there was no one who wasn't moved by this documentary. We had good discussions about it. (Free trade is best?) Even though, the amount of expressions and people interviewed is quite low. There are no views of "good" parts surrounding the Victoria Lake (there is tourism there as well). So it is biased. But still, this documentary shows the awful side of a dualistic country. Critics should show the counterpart. Viewers should balance between them to form a opinion.

For now, this movie is one which needs "digestion"

DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE (written and directed by Hubert Sauper)

First of all you have to mention that the film DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE is a documentary. The film deals with the topic of colonization respectively globalization and their consequences over there in Tanzania. The results are that the majority of the population is condemned to starving, to slavery, to prostitution and to drug-addiction.

As I wrote before, the setting is Tanzania (South-East of Africa), but most attention is put on Lake Victoria, the world's biggest tropical lake. That sounds nice, but the cruel reality is that someone has released a Nile perch in this lake. As you can imagine this release wasn't the best for the lake. It turned out to be an ecological disaster. This perch bred and grew and by the time it destroyed the whole balance of the lake. The perch has nearly become the lake's only inhabitant, beside some crocodiles. Now the Nile perch is the most important source for income of the natives (25% of export). Each day about 500 tons of these fish are caught. That's a great number and you may think that these people are rich, because of such a big amount. Well, they are not. They earn very little for a very tough job (about one dollar, I think). The disgusting circumstances do not make it that better and easier (They have to work between dead fish and maggots). Children have to fight for their meals, adults die because of diseases and others go into prostitution. So, that's what you see in the film; cruel, crazy, but unfortunately true stuff.

This film is a very good documentary. First I thought it would be very boring, because I didn't know anything about it and I couldn't find a lot about it on the Internet (not as much as I found about other films). This film is a real eye-opener. What really shocked and shook me are the bad circumstances the natives have to work in. I mean they have to work between rotten fish-heads and maggots and do not get a lot of money for this kind of work. That is even disgusting to watch, but what do you think it is for the workers? Another fact is that the gases of the dead fish (ammoniac gas) are venomous and destroy the eyes of the workers. In my opinion that is not humane. I think that if they got more money they would have a better life. They do not need 100 or thousand dollars more. Why? Because most of them have to live with just one dollar a day. Just a few more dollars are a lot for them. Who could change this? I think the big companies which sell the fish. Just give them a few dollars more and their own fish to eat and they would be happy. Come on, give it to them. You would do a humane thing and you could say that you really want to help the people over there. That would be good publicity, too. So, please think about it, you could afford it! Conclusion: You should see this film.

Thanks for reading this review.

I just saw the movie at the Harvard Film Archive and the director Hurbert Sauper was there. Not only was this a very touching film it was also great to hear from the director as to why and in what ways he made the film, along with some of his motives behind it. It is not a traditional documentary in the sense that he really lets the characters do the narrating. On a side note, one of the prostitutes who was killed by an Austrailian is supposedly going to be prosecuted (not definitely but a politician in Austrailia is trying to prosecute) as a result of this film, in addition Austrailia is trying to set up a law whereby Austrailians who commit crimes in other countries can be tried at home, just one unexpected precedent already started as a result of this film. Again a great documentary that I hope gets more notoriety in the states.