SMOKE SACRIFICE

A film about the world of smoke and ecological deserts; about the cultivation of tobacco and its disastrous effects on Africa’s farmers and youth. Smoking has become less of a threat to the health of the developed world. Although consumer habits and cultivation have drastically changed in the northern hemisphere, the smoking industry now endangers the health of the rest of the world. A caravan of smoking cowboys and friendly camels invade Asian and African countries, carrying promises of a consumers’ paradise overseas. The souls of indigenous women and teenagers are conquered throughout the Third World , while the deadly strategies of the tobacco industry choke local economies, leading them straight into misery. Smoking causes serious health problems, not only to each individual, but also to the planet itself: Smoking creates deserts. The expanding cultivation of tobacco requires razing of entire forests, both for new farmland and as source of fuel for drying tobacco leaves. The habit of smoking is causing ecological change of global dimensions.

Agriculture, Tobacco, Globalisation, Culture, Economy, Environment, Portrait