Toxic Colonialism – the export of waste material from rich to poor countries – is on trial.
A Swedish mining company exports 20,000 tonnes of toxic waste to the Chilean desert town of Arica. Thousands of people become sick, many die from cancer. ARICA plunges us into the groundbreaking corporate accountability trial which begins after Lars Edman – born in Chile and raised in Boliden – exposes the scandal.
Alongside his co-director William Johansson, Lars follows the story for 15 years, exposing how decisions made decades ago in Europe continue to affect people in South America. Part personal journey, part courtroom drama, ARICA is the story of an afflicted community fighting for justice against a multinational company desperate to clear their name.
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
2020 World Premiere: IDFA – Frontlight
2020 AricaDoc (Latin American Premiere)
2021 HUMAN International Documentary Film Festival (Norwegian Premiere)
2021 Tempo International Documentary Film Festival (Swedish Premiere)
2021 MOOOV Film Festival
2021 Millenium Film Festival
2021 Docville
2021 One World Prague (Czech Premiere)
2021 DocsBarcelona
2021 FICMEC
2021 DOC-Cévennes
2021 Ecofalante Environmental Film Festival
2021 Nordisk Panorama Film Festival
2021 FIGRA (French Premiere)
2021 CineEco – Serra da Estrela International Environmental Film Festival
2021 BIFED Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary
2021 Inconvenient Films
2021 Nordische Filmtage Lübeck
2021 One World Slovakia
2021 Verzio International Human Rights DFF
2021 International Film Festival Cinémaplanète
2021 Cambridge Film Festival (UK Premiere)
2021 L’Europe autour de l’Europe
2021 Bir Duino-Kyrgyzstan IDFF (Kyrgyzstan Premiere)
2021 Solidarity Tel Aviv Human Rights Film Festival
2021 Watch Docs Poland
2021 Guangzhou Documentary Film Festival, the Golden Kapok
2022 ReFrame Film Festival
2022 Cinema Verde International Environmental Film & Arts Festival
2022 Re:Verzió
2022 Festival du Film documentaire de Martinique
2022 Skandinavische Filmtage Bonn
2022 Festival Internacional de Cine Ambiental FINCA
2022 Sole Luna Doc FF
2022 Fraud Film Festival Amsterdam
2023 Dunedin IFF
AWARDS
- Special Mention, Con-Science Competition, Docville 2021
- Grand Prize, awarded by students, at EcoFest Romania 2021
- Jury Special Award at EcoFest Romania 2021
- Reporters Without Borders Human Rights Award at FIGRA 2021
- Prémio Antropologia Ambiental at CineEco – Serra da Estrela International Environmental Film Festival 2021
- Honorable Mention from the Youth Jury at CineEco – Serra da Estrela International Environmental Film Festival 2021
- The Fethi Kayaalp Grand Prize at BIFED Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary 2021
- Best Documentary Award at Nordische Filmtage in Lübeck 2021
- Best Human Rights Documentary Award at Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival 2021
- Best International Film Award at Bir Duino Film Fest in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 2021
- Honorable Mention, International Documentary Competition at Solidarity Human Rights Film Festival 2021
- Cinema Verité Award at Cinema Verde International Environmental Film & Arts Festival 2022
- Jury’s Favorite at Festival du Film documentaire de Martinique 2022
- Prize of the Public at Festival du Film documentaire de Martinique 2022
- Second Prize in International Competition at FINCA Festival in Buenos Aires, Argentina 2022
- International Green Award, category “Health and living environment”, Deauville Green Awards 2022
- Best Direction Award at Sole Luna Festival, Palermo 2022
PRESS
Reviews: The Telegraph (EN), The Guardian (EN), Indie-visible (EN), Business Doc Europe (EN), El Mostrador (ESP), CineChile (ESP), El Mostrador (ESP), El Morrocotudo (ESP), POV Magazine (EN), Cineuropa (EN), Filmuforia (EN), Variety (EN), Down to Earth (NL), In de bioscoop (NL)
Interviews: The Upcoming (EN), ETC (SWE), T13 (ESP), Variety (EN), Business Doc Europe (EN)
United Nations Human Rights Council Special Report: United Nations Human Rights Communications Office for the High Commission, UN HRC Letter to Swedish Government, UN HRC Letter to Managing Director of Boliden
Press coverage: Osservatorio Diritti (IT), Scoop (EN), Business Doc Europe (EN), Pressenza (EN), Cineuropa (EN), SVT (SE)
On the whole, the piece is very powerful and it takes very little to empathise with Arica’s community. The good fight is brilliantly told and the film sheds light on a shameful case of modern colonialism.
Davide Abbatescianni, Cineuropa
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Lars Edman
Born in Chile and raised in Sweden, Lars returned to South America to attend the Valparaiso Film School. Toxic Playground was Lars’ first film which went on to win 6 international awards, screening in over 30 international festivals and being broadcast on TV across Europe.
Since completing Toxic Playground, Lars has retrained as a speech and language therapist and now lives in the north of Norway. Arica will be his second feature documentary.
William Johansson Kalén
William Johansson Kalén has worked as a Director, Editor in chief, DoP and Film editor since 2006 and has been working with a number of documentaries, documentary series and TV-programs. He co-directed the award-winning documentary Toxic Playground in 2009 and started as a film producer in 2015 when he also became a shareholder of Laika Film & Television. He is currently producing an artistic documentary about architecture that will premiere in early 2021 and producing a couple of Laika’s projects in development. He has worked as assistant producer on the documentary Cold Case Hammarskjöld and the fiction Beauty And The Dogs and The Man Who Sold His Skin. He is also the Swedish producer in the fiction Jordanian film Farha that will premiere in spring 2021.
CREDITS
Director Lars Edman, William Johansson Kalén
Production Andreas Rocksen for Laika Film & Television AB, William Johansson Kalén
Co-production Clin d’Oeil films, Relation04 Media AS, Radio Film Ltd, Aricadoc
Cinematography William Johansson Kalén
Animation Johan Lindström
Editing Göran Gester, William Johansson Kalén
Sound Lars Edman
Music Per Henrik Mäenpää
Screenplay Lars Edman, William Johansson Kalén
Involved TV Channel SVT, RTBF
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Andreas Rocksén co-founded Laika Film in 2004 and is now Managing Director. He is an acknowledged journalist and has produced, co-produced and directed numerous short and feature-length documentaries and in recent years also entered into fiction as a co-producer.
His latest production, Cold Case Hammarskjöld won awards at Sundance, It’s All True, Movies that Matters, One World and more.
William Johansson Kalén
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Laika Film & Television AB is an independent film production company. We have since 2004 produced a number of reports and documentaries on subjects that engage, reveals and creates debate. Our films have been recognized with awards and nominations all over the globe.
Recently Laika Film & Television AB has also entered into international feature film projects with the ambition to bring new stories to life.
Laika Film & Television AB
Västgötagränd 13, 11828 Stockholm, Sweden
+4686680540
laika@laikafilm.se
andreas@laikafilm.se
http://laikafilm.se/
CO-PRODUCTION
Clin d’Oeil Films
Engelandstraat 53 – 1060 Brussel, Belgium
+32 10 73 03 82
hanne@clindoeilfilms.be
http://www.clindoeilfilms.be/
Relation04 Media AS
Buveien 37B 9407 Harstad, Norway
+4747234597
media@relation04.com
http://relation04.com/
Radio Film Ltd
11A Side, Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 3JE, United Kingdom
Andy Jones +44 7960 393 785
andy@radiofilm.co.uk
skype: screenstation
https://www.radiofilm.co.uk/
Aricadoc
http://www.aricadoc.cl/
Partners
RTBF
Swedish Film Institute
Swedish Postcode Lottery
SVT
Swedish Arts Grant
Creative Europe
Film i Västerbotten
Filmpool Nord
Filmbasen
Filmbasen Technical
