Directors’ Commentary

Jasmin Herold and Michael Beamish about their film “Dark Eden”

»We all know that the exploitation of natural resources is a fundamental pillar of our modern society. Oil production in particular has almost become synonymous with the globalised market economy, in which people and the environment fall by the wayside. But what attitude does a filmmaker take when this system is much more complex than it first seems? We pursued this question in Canada's Fort McMurray, where the world's largest industrial project for oil production is located.

In this place, morality and corruption, hope and destruction lie very close together, making it into a sort of magnifying glass of human contradictions: someone securing his or her livelihood can often mean destruction of another person’s livelihood. But the actors involved in this great machine are not evil people. Most of the time they are simply doing their job, as we all do, and have no wrong intentions at all.

For "Dark Eden" it was important for us to document from the centre of the system. When Michael, who grew up in this area, got cancer the reality of our own project caught up with us. It’s mentioned several times in "Dark Eden": not seeing what you know. We tried to make that visible with this film.«

Jasmin Herold and Michael Beamish with their dog Hunter at the "Dark Eden" premiere at the Kinobar Prager Frühling in Leipzig. © W-film / Sebastian Komnick