Irish Films at MIFF 2020 : Atlantic

This year Irish Films have special focus at Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF). I watched today Irish short film Atlantic at MIFF

Atlantic, was produced by  Risteard Ó Domhnaill in 2016, raises serious issues and picks up where his previous film The Pipe left off by following its ripples out into the wider world. 

Ó Domhnaill heads to Norway, Newfound Land and the Donegal of Ireland coast to find stories that help elucidate the complex development of country’s offshore resources over few years. The film is a wake-up call as chilling as a bucket of ice-cold seawater over the head. It follows the coastal fishing communities in Newfoundland, Norway and Ireland struggling to maintain their way of life amidst shrinking fishing quotas and mismanaged resources. Among those featured are Jerry Early, the Arranmore fisherman convicted of fishing with a net “with the potential to catch a salmon” as EU super-trawlers fish his waters, and a Norwegian acoustic specialist’s warnings about the effects of marine oil exploration on fish spawning grounds.

As it happens when multinational corporates enter into a business , the conventional traders gradually go out of business. They can not combat with mighty Corporates. The waste and corporate greed revealed in the film is terrifying. A former super-trawler second mate describes how unofficial logbooks reveal that in four weeks, his ship threw 4,000 tonnes of dead herring back into the sea and landed 5,000 tonnes of larger fish, a practice known as “high-grading” that saves the processing costs of smaller fish.

It was  initially financed through a crowd-funding campaign, blends contemporary characters and archive footage to track the growth of big oil and industrial super-trawler fishing, and also shows the decline of coastal fishing communities in all three countries.

Atlantic is a must watch for capturing the beauty of area also as it is replete with lush coastal landscapes, aerial shots of Norwegian fjords and tumble-down clapperboard Newfoundland . But it leaves a strong warning message  that the Atlantic resources of fish and oil are being criminally mismanaged for profit, and the voices of small coastal communities are being drowned in a tide of greed, big business and EU quota deals.

Pradeep Gupta 

29.01.2030.