Where does the palm oil that is still and unfortunately still present in many foods come from? The answer lies in a spectacular and tragic documentary, Green. In 45 minutes of beautiful, hard-hitting footage, showing the entire journey of the supply chain based on this tropical fat. From the forest to the supermarket shelf. Going through a kind of atomic bombing. The forest as Hiroshima.
The picture story tells the experience of Green, the female Indonesian orangutan that gives the film its title. He reconstructs everything he has seen and experienced from the now dying animal. The wonder of the towering green peaks, the daily life in paradise, the dense wildlife splashing in cool, clean waters.
A scenery disrupted by the arrival of chainsaws cutting down trees to make way for an oil palm plantation. Devastation. With the logs removed, which become ethnic furniture and parquet flooring, the earth is set on fire. It is used to transform the sterile peat into a mush more suitable for its new purpose. Here come the palm trees. First seedlings, then huge clumps, with their oily clusters.
Green is a film that moves and outrages. And it makes people think about the excesses of unconscious consumption. Shot by French filmmaker Patrick Rouxell, the documentary is dialogue-free. Nor are they needed. Only sounds are heard. Those of the forest and the animals that live in it. And the screeching ones of the saws, of the machines that turn the berries into a reddish liquid. The first appearance of that vegetable fat that turns yellow after yet another treatment.
Awarded at several international festivals of “committed” cinema, the film can be seen on Rouxell’s website: http://patrickrouxel.com/index.php/en/films/green. In theaters or on television it would be a hit. But who can afford such an exceptional castd as the one hired by the French director? The credits mention one by one everyone who made the film possible. There are palm oil producers and Indonesian wood producers. They parade the distributors. Then the banks. And again, the names of food industry giants who buy palm oil from suppliers put on the Index for their practices appear. Finally, there is us, the consumers. For two years now, with the enactment of reg. EU 1169/11, we can read on the label if the ingredients of food include palm oil. To decide whether we really want to contribute to this process of devastation or not.
Marta Strinati
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
