It is a battle like David against Goliath. On one side are the inhabitants of the paradisiacal island of Bougainville, called OPHIR before the colonization, and on the other the central government of Papua New Guinea, a large corporation and its mercenary troops. Bougainville is home to the world's largest open-pit copper mine, over which the bloodiest conflict in the Pacific since the end of World War II erupted in 1988. In a horrific civil war that wipes out 10% of Bougainville's population, the Bougainvilleans fight for autonomous province status. OPHIR dramatically interweaves history and current events to tell how a place that resembles a small paradise can suddenly turn into a hell when the visible and invisible chains of colonialism and the law of profit and exploitation decides to impose its dictatorship.
Documentary, Independent
1h 37min
16+
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It is a battle like David against Goliath. On one side are the inhabitants of the paradisiacal island of Bougainville, called OPHIR before the colonization, and on the other the central government of Papua New Guinea, a large corporation and its mercenary troops. Bougainville is home to the world's largest open-pit copper mine, over which the bloodiest conflict in the Pacific since the end of World War II erupted in 1988. In a horrific civil war that wipes out 10% of Bougainville's population, the Bougainvilleans fight for autonomous province status.
OPHIR dramatically interweaves history and current events to tell how a place that resembles a small paradise can suddenly turn into a hell when the visible and invisible chains of colonialism and the law of profit and exploitation decides to impose its dictatorship.