On the last Wednesday of January, at the first Green Screen of the year, Sustainable Keswick and North Lakes XR, in partnership with Keswick Alhambra, showed ‘THE FISHERMAN AND THE BANKER’, a gripping modern day David-versus-Goliath story that left the audience both inspired and disappointed. This powerful documentary follows the Wagher fishing community’s decade-long battle against corporate giants and international financial institutions in India’s Gulf of Kutch.
Imagine a coastal village that once thrived, with incredible marine biodiversity, suddenly transformed by the arrival of Tata’s massive coal-fired power plant. The film paints a stark picture of how this industrial behemoth decimated local fish populations and increased water salinity, directly threatening the centuries-old way of life for these traditional fisher folk.
The story takes a compelling turn when the community, with the help of environmental lawyers from EarthRights International in Washington, D.C., files a lawsuit against the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 2015, the finance arm of the World Bank, which loaned money for the power station.
What follows is a nail-biting legal journey that exposes the challenges of seeking justice against powerful global institutions, made all the more difficult when the plaintiffs are the poor in a distant place. Despite some initial hope when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such organizations could be sued in federal courts, the case ultimately fell short in 2022.
What truly sets this documentary apart is the film’s intimate portrayal of the life of the villagers. It brilliantly contrasts the cold, bureaucratic legal proceedings with the vibrant, resilient spirit of the community. The most heart-touching moments come when local elders sing traditional melodies that capture their struggle – a powerful reminder that their story will survive, regardless of courtroom outcomes.
More than just a local story, ‘THE FISHERMAN AND THE BANKER’ is a universal tale of marginalised communities fighting against seemingly insurmountable odds. It’s a raw, unflinching look at how environmental degradation, corporate interests, and social justice collide – and a powerful testament to human resilience. It also shows the lengths the corporate interests will go to divide and crush communal solidarity.
‘THE FISHERMAN AND THE BANKER’ does more than just document a legal battle. It gives voice to a community whose story might otherwise have been forgotten, reminding us that true justice is about more than legal victories – it’s about preserving human dignity and traditional ways of life.
At the next Green Screen, on Wednesday 26th February at 7.30 will be a screening of ‘POINT OF CHANGE’. An ‘idyllic’ island community is dramatically changed forever by the ‘discovery’ of the ‘perfect’ wave in the 1970s. The remarkable and previously untold true story of the first surf pioneers to ‘discover’ the ‘Point’ on the isolated Indonesian island of Nias and the dramatic consequences and the devastating social and ecological repercussions for the people and place that followed. This is a contemporary, cautionary tale of paradise lost.
For more information contact Joe Human: j.human@icloud.com or 017687 80047 or 07946 683 327.
Recent Comments