01
THE FILM
Carolina, Bertha and Maxima are hunting down some misbehaving corporation in the EU or the USA. Despite a deeply unbalanced game, these three women share a common goal: they are leading today's fight against modern conquistadors.
Whereas governments and corporations, trapped in a global race towards unlimited growth, need to get the cheapest raw materials, Bertha, Carolina and Maxima tell us a story of tireless courage: how to keep fighting to protect nature when your life is at risk? When police repression, corporate harassment, injuries or even death threats are part of your daily routine?
THE ILLUSION OF ABUNDANCE is not only a film about those who pay the high price of ‘development’ and ‘progress’, it is above all a film about the globalization of their environmental resistance and their conviction to hunt down misbehaving transnational corporations, wherever they hide.
02
THE PEOPLE
Máxima is a Peruvian indigenous peasant who lived peacefully in a tiny house right next to Yanacocha, the second largest gold mine in the world. She lives 4000 m above sea level, high up in the mountain, with almost no electricity, living out of family crops and animals, walking down once a week to the nearest village to sell the extra food they did not eat. One day, Yanacocha wanted to expand their activities. The Conga project found Maxima's land and house on their way…
Carolina lives in the heart of the Brazilian historical mining region of Minas Gerais. After the mining toxic waste dam broke in Brumadinho in 2019, following the one in Mariana in 2015, she decided to find justice for the 272 persons killed in only a few minutes. Carolina is the impersonation of the aware journalist / activist taking consciousness about what is going around her community, about the greed of corporations, about a State that works for corporations rather than for the people.
In 2015, Berta Cáceres won the prestigious Goldman Prize for her fight against the construction of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam. A few months later, she was murdered at home. Her daugther Bertha was suddenly forced to become a national land defender that no one can stop anymore to show light on what happened to her mum. She puts her own life in danger to confront the Hondurian corrupted elite and she knows that the fight must be made by legally attacking corporations in the European Union too.
03
THE CREW
ERIKA GONZALEZ RAMIREZ & MATTHIEU LIETAERT
directors, producers, writers, impact producers
MATTHIEU LIETAERT : Photography
ERIKA GONZALEZ RAMIREZ: Sound Recording
JAN DE COSTER: Editor & script doctor
JESPER OSMUND : Narrative film angel
NORBERT PFLANZER : music composition
CHARO CLAVO: Sound design, Sound editing
SELIA ÇAKIR : Sound editing
ALINE GAVROY : Sound mixing
DAVID FORERO MONTANA : Color grading
DANIELA PINTO : Graphic animator
PRODUCERS
The film producer is Not So Crazy! Productions - Belgium.
The film was made with the financial support of:
Belgium: Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD), Oxfam Belgium - Protection International - 11.11.11 - European Environmental Bureau (network) - CIDSE (network) - EU LAT (network)
// The Netherlands : Both Ends, IUCN Netherlands (International Union for Conservation of Nature) - Vastenactie
// Luxembourg: ASTM - Klima Bündnis Lëtzebuer
// Spain: Intermón OXFAM
// France: CCFD Terre solidaire
// Germany : Misereor - Bread for the World
// Austria: DKA
// Norway : CARE
// Denmark: Oxfam IBIS
// Sweden: We Effect
// USA : The Swift Foundation
// Global : The International Land Coalition (ILC)
// Switzerland : Heks Eper - ISHR - Fastenaktion /