ELDORADO - The Struggle for Skouries
Independently produced documentary by Leopold Helbich & Wasil Schauseil
Length: 65 mins. Greek/English, produced in Greece/Germany 2018
Length: 65 mins. Greek/English, produced in Greece/Germany 2018
ELDORADO - The Struggle for Skouries is an urgent documentary chronicling the struggle against environmental destruction through high-risk gold mining at Europe's largest mining project located in Northern Greece. Chronicling the resistance against high-risk gold extraction and the criminalization of the anti-mining movement by the Greek government, it is an urgent document of neoliberal ideals and human rights abuses playing out in one of the most crisis-ridden countries of Europe.
Although its mining plans for Northern Greece are irreversibly catastrophic for the environment, the company is backed by the Greek Government and central European Union policies and fueled by the complex economic politics of the current economic crisis in the name of “needed investments”.Local opposition to extreme mineral extraction became a broad-based movement driven by a desire for a deeper form of democracy, which received solidarity from all over Greece and across Europe. The Greek government reacted by sending anti-terrorist squads into a resistant village and brought up charges against more than 450 people, many of whom are accused for allegedly forming a criminal organization and are facing severe prison sentences. Meanwhile, Canadian low-cost mining company Eldorado Gold uses elaborate tax evasion schemes to avoid paying income tax channeling profits via Dutch mailbox companies.
With a unique access to long-term residents and extensive archive material, the film tells the stories of activists criminalized for their opposition to the mining project and documents the high price of gold for the environment and human rights in Greece.
Although its mining plans for Northern Greece are irreversibly catastrophic for the environment, the company is backed by the Greek Government and central European Union policies and fueled by the complex economic politics of the current economic crisis in the name of “needed investments”.Local opposition to extreme mineral extraction became a broad-based movement driven by a desire for a deeper form of democracy, which received solidarity from all over Greece and across Europe. The Greek government reacted by sending anti-terrorist squads into a resistant village and brought up charges against more than 450 people, many of whom are accused for allegedly forming a criminal organization and are facing severe prison sentences. Meanwhile, Canadian low-cost mining company Eldorado Gold uses elaborate tax evasion schemes to avoid paying income tax channeling profits via Dutch mailbox companies.
With a unique access to long-term residents and extensive archive material, the film tells the stories of activists criminalized for their opposition to the mining project and documents the high price of gold for the environment and human rights in Greece.
The Story
The situation in the area of Skouries is a social, ecological, and political battlefield. In 2012 the Canadian Eldorado Gold Corporation acquired 317 million square meters of land and started drastically expanding mining activities. Soon, the open-pit mining will expel four tons of toxic dust per hour and unearth 20,000 tons of arsenic per year. Confronted with the irreversible destruction of the environment, the population reacted massively and united, organizing protests that brought up to 25.000 people to the streets.
After an arson attack on the mining site by a group of 50 unknown people in 2013, the Greek government reacted by criminalizing the whole anti-mining movement, sent anti-terrorism and riot police forces who used excessive violence, detained people without evidence, conducted house searches, collected DNA, and monitored telephone conversations for several months. Today, more than 450 people are accused for their opposition and several of them for forming a criminal organization, which might result in prison charges for 25 years. ELDORADO tells their stories which are interwoven with the struggle for sovereignty over the resources most crucial for collective survival: water, air, and land. The story of Skouries has barely been reported in the Greek media, which has a reputation for being linked to corporate interests. Media bias is particularly strong in this case because Eldorado Gold’s Greek subsidiary is owned by the same family as the largest TV Channel of Greece. |
Police protecting test drillings of Eldorado in the area of Tsikara
Processing Plant in the pristine forest of Skouries
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Drawing for the film by neverbrushmytheeth
Our Partners
ELDORADO - The Struggle for Skouries was produced independently with the amazing support we have received through our backers on indiegogo as well as a great number of collaborators in Greece, the UK and Germany.
Moreover, the film could not have been realized without the support of our partner organisations in Greece and the Netherlands:
Hellenic Mining Watch is an independent, non-for profit observatory of mining practices in Greece with the aim to ensure the health of individuals, communities and ecosystems.
The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) is a critical, independent, not-for-profit knowledge centre on multinational organizations.
Moreover, the film could not have been realized without the support of our partner organisations in Greece and the Netherlands:
Hellenic Mining Watch is an independent, non-for profit observatory of mining practices in Greece with the aim to ensure the health of individuals, communities and ecosystems.
The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) is a critical, independent, not-for-profit knowledge centre on multinational organizations.
Contact
For inquiries about the film, ways to support the movement
and organising screnings please get in touch! |