105' 2019 Austria director: Richard Ladkani cinematography: Richard Ladkani editing: Georg Michael Fischer, Verena Schönauer production: National Geographic, TERRA MATER Factual Studios
Environmentalists at war with Mexican cartels
The winner of an audience award at the Sundance Festival, executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, Sea of Shadows is a documentary thriller, dramatic testimony about the unequal fight to save the last vaquitas, the world’s smallest whale. In his spectacular film, Richard Ladkani follows a group of eminent scientists, environmentalists, and activists who, in the face of indolence and corruption on the part of the authorities, come up against Mexican cartels that control the illegal fishing market in the Sea of Cortez—it’s no accident that this business involves criminals known for their cruelty. The poachers’ main target is the totoaba fish, which, like the vaquita, is critically endangered. Known on the black market as “the cocaine of the sea,” a single totoaba can fetch up to $100,000.
