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The fishing boats stranded along the sand dunes are symbolic of the ecological disaster of the Aral Sea, a result of Soviet agricultural planning. The film describes daily life in the villages around what was the Aral Sea, where hundreds of thousands of people live assailed by illnesses caused by the poisoning of the water table and the sedimentation of DDT, along with other pesticides used in growing of cotton on the dried out surface of the lake. For 180 days of the year, the area is tormented by deadly storms of poisonous dust. What is more, the New York Times revealed the existence of an island in the Aral Sea where the Soviets had run experiments with deadly chemical and bacteriological arms since the 1950s. Before abandoning the island, the Soviets buried their entire bacteriological arsenal, including tons of anthrax in quantities large enough to destroy the entire planet several times over.

Italy - 1999 - 40 mn - Betacam SP - Colour

Réalisation Duilio Giammaria Image Claudio Speranza Montage Marco Alfonsi

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