The enemies (and maker) of Darwin's Nightmare
In LA Weekly, B. Ruby Rich talks to Hubert Sauper, director of the fierce, Oscar-nominated doc, Darwin’s Nightmare. “Sauper does not appear in his own documentaries. He’s no Nick Broomfield or Michael Moore, hogging the frame to brand his vision. Instead of his face, he pours his heart and wisdom into Darwin’s Nightmare, infusing it with a degree of empathy and compassion rarely encountered in contemporary documentaries. In the human-rights corner of nonfiction filmmaking, where docs usually rely on shocking revelations to do the job, his poetic lyricism is even rarer. More than an exposé, more than an anti-globalization screed, Darwin’s Nightmare is a cinematic Homeric ode, shot with a tiny consumer-grade Sony camera in four years of trips back and forth to Tanzania… 
Sauper brings such a contagious enthusiasm to everyone and everything he encounters that you immediately understand how he was able, in the most difficult conditions imaginable, to capture his intimate interviews with Darwin’s Nightmare’s unforgettable subjects… Darwin’s Nightmare, Sauper’s second film, leaves its audiences so devastated that some have complained it can’t work as an activist tool because it’s too depressing. “I think those people were already depressed before they saw my film,” says Sauper, who proceeds to rattle off facts and figures about arms-trading in Africa, environmental devastation and social collapse. “The biggest wars are in the center of Africa, not Iraq. A million people are dying in the center of Africa from the direct consequences of war, the arms are coming mostly from Western and Eastern Europe, and they’re not illegal. These people you see in the film are just doing their job, just making deliveries. They’re like taxi drivers.” .
.. Sauper has made enemies in high places — the Tanzanian government sees the film as an attack on its country, and the fisheries bureau is furious that Sauper focused his camera on its night watchman instead of its CEO. But as long as he keeps making friends where no one else cares to look, and treating them with respect, he will be unstoppable. Having completed the first two parts of his planned African trilogy, he’s currently back in Paris, his home base, raising money — something the success of Darwin’s Nightmare makes a little easier…” [More background on Sauper and the film at the link.]
THE TRUTH ON HUBERT SAUPER’S- “DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE FILM”
“Darwin’s Nightmare” film was produced by a freelance journalist of Austrian descent based in France.
The film maker, Mr. Hubert Sauper tries to portray that the Nile Perch (Sangara) trade from Mwanza region in Tanzania facilitates poverty, hunger, prostitution, homelessness to children, environmental destruction, loss of lake Victoria biodiversity and human rights abuse in the area. He further claimed that Nile Perch business in Tanzania is a door for importing ammunition to the Great Lake Region.
Mr. Sauper claims that high quality Nile Perch fillets are exported to the European market while the locals are left with fish remains, specifically the head and skeleton, popularly known by the Kiswahili word ‘mapanki’.
Mr. Sauper mentions Christmas festivities during which European children enjoy high quality food (fish fillets) while their counterpart in Africa instead of such food staff received ammunition.
Mr. Sauper in his film inserts a number of scenes that are not natural (cooked one). This implies that inserts were done purposely so as to achieve the intended goal of cheating and tarnishing the good image of Mwanza and Tanzania in general.
Mr. Sauper had an intention of showing that Nile Perch business in Tanzania is the main cause of poor living conditions and source of various ailments to the people who reside around lake Victoria.