DELTA - Oil's Dirty Business
In the Niger Delta, oil companies plunder resources, poison the land, and ignite violence, turning a once-thriving region into a battleground of exploitation and resistance.
64 min
2007
Full HD
Directed by Yorgos Avgeropoulos
FIPA D’ARGENT, Festival International des Programmes Audiovisuels (FIPA), Biarritz, France, February 2007
DELTA - Oil's Dirty Business
In the Niger Delta, oil companies plunder resources, poison the land, and ignite violence, turning a once-thriving region into a battleground of exploitation and resistance.
64 min 2007 Full HD
Directed by Yorgos Avgeropoulos
FIPA D’ARGENT, Festival International des Programmes Audiovisuels (FIPA), Biarritz, France, February 2007

SYNOPSIS
At the Delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, where a vast proportion of the planet’s oil is excavated, bomb attacks, abductions and murders form part of the daily routine. The documentary portrays the image of “development”, as giant multinational petroleum companies would define it. Petroleum leaks in the River destroy the flora and fauna, poison the food chain and consequently wipe out the 27 million indigenous people of the area – the Ijaws, the Ogoni and the Itsekiris.
The inhabitants dare to ask the self-evident, they demand an end to it. As a response they are being massively and brutally attacked by special forces of the army and the police, which are armed by the oil companies. On the river the camera meets militia of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta—MEND—and, for the first time, presents to the world shattering images of their speed boat patrols and heavy weaponry.
The Delta of Niger is a lost paradise. As the documentary reveals, it is a place where despite the natural beauty, contemporary “globalized” hell prevails.








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MAIN CREDITS
Written, Produced & Directed By: YORGOS AVGEROPOULOS
Research Coordinator: APOSTOLIS KAPAROUDAKIS
Production Manager: ANASTASIA SKOUBRI
Director of Photography: YIANNIS AVGEROPOULOS
Editing: DIMITRIS NIKOLOPOULOS, MELETIS PONGKAS
Music: YIANNIS PAXEVANIS
Graphics: SAKIS PALPANAS