Foreign investors are rushing to buy farmland in Africa and Ethiopia is one of the latest agricultural hotspots. Though the Ethiopian government has leased millions of hectares of land to foreign investors, there are two sides to this story. While some believe that these investments will provide huge export revenues and pave the way for development, others have lost their livelihoods and suffered from forced evictions, environmental destruction, and state repression.
In this shocking real-life thriller, Swedish director Joakim Demmer pursues the story from investors and bureaucrats to persecuted journalists, struggling environmentalists, and farmers who have been evicted from their land. The documentary starts in apparently remote corners of Ethiopia and leads through global financial centers, all the way to our dining tables. With billions of development dollars every year from organizations like the World Bank, DFID, and EU, the question remains: are transnational land investments bolstering the economy or slowly selling out the country?
