Synopsis
In May 2016 Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, officially opened Belo Monte, the world’s third largest dam at the River Xingu, a tributary of the River Amazon. To this end, parts of the rain forest were cleared, fishermen and indigenous communities were displaced and 40.000 people forcefully relocated so that electric energy can be generated for multinational aluminium manufacturing companies as well as for the emerging economy of Brazil. “All this goes against the law”, says the public prosecutor.The film informs about the penultimate construction phase of this megadam: the flooding of the land. It reveals how all this came about and what went on behind the scenes. It reports on the huge corruption scandal surrounding “Petrobas” implicating major Brazilian construction companies.
Those are the very companies that built “Belo Monte” – as well as the stadiums for the Olympic Games.
”Without corruption” Belo Monte would never would never have happened”, says Catholic bishop Erwin Kräutler. He is strongly critical of European companies such a Siemens, which have supplied the turbines for this “megadam madness”.
Meanwhile the president herself has fallen victim to a bizarre power struggle in the aftermath of the corruption scandal. Yet, the fight continues by the River Tapajos where the Munduruku tribe is relentless in their resistance to any future megadam projects and to the alien concept of “economic growth” which continues to destroy our planet.