Dark Eden

Well made documentary showing life in some parts of Canada is not what the world often thinks of. Many came to Ft. McMurray chasing dreams through high salaries. Others came simply to survive and escape poverty. But ultimately, events often overtake inflated and unrealistic goals.

The film does delve into the political aspect of oil extraction as an environmental issue, portraying defenders of the industry as one-sided and unable to see the reality of the resulting devastation. The famed Canadian health care system also seems unable to adequately cope with industry related health issues. It makes the viewer question whether the resulting damage to the environment and human health is worth the high price of oil extraction.

The documentary pace is purposefully slow with sparse narration, which allows the viewer to form their own opinion based on what is presented. But ultimately, it gives much pause to think at what price is Canada willing to pay in terms of environmental and health damage in order to support a standard of living.

The movie starts has overall a very slow pace, you can argue it's on the boarder to boring. This adds in with an extreme long introduction of the few families which are portrait and their live in fort Murray. I was asking myself quite often where is this movie leading to.

The movie than gets a change around 30 minutes before the end, when you see how the life of the families changes. Here the movie gets better and the long introduction of the families starts to pay off as you are more connected to the changes happening to them. (Without spoiling to much).

All the movie in my view tries to relativ neutral document the live in the oil sand industry and why people do it and what price they pay. The viewer itself should judge what he think about it.

For me personally the pace of the movie is much to slow. I can understand everybody giving up latest after 15 minutes.

Seeing until the end it's ok but no must see in my view 7/10 as the topic itself was new for me and the movie covers quite a long time hence a bonus for the efforts.

The film is telling the story of several workers, helping to extract oil from the tar sands around Fort Mc Murray in Canada. The author lets the people speak, offering practically no comments.

This documentary seemed pretty boring at the beginning. To me, the identity of the female narrator was not clear. It seems that actually two women were speaking, and only one appeared on the camera.

During the first half of the film we see the bright side: very high salaries. One of the skilled workers is able to enjoy extravagant exploits, once reserved for the aristocracy and the very rich.

Then the indigenous people begin to tell a troubling story about the wild animals in the area, the health of children... Watch the aerial survey of the extraction site... What happens if and when the oil price falls? You will see the answer. The authors of the film actually worked in Fort Mc Murray. A sobering film, worth watching.