Taskovski Films, the London-based world film sales company, has picked up “Grasshopper Republic,” which will have its world premiere in the International Competition at Visions du Réel documentary festival in Switzerland.
Filmed by Daniel McCabe over the course of three seasons in Uganda, “Grasshopper Republic” follows a grasshopper trapping team in verité style as these modern-day prospectors push into remote forests seeking their fortune by capturing this elusive prey.
We witness massive generators being hauled up collapsing mudbanks. Light posts are erected with chemically treated bulbs, casting a lurid neon green pall over the tree canopy, irresistibly attracting the swarm to their corrugated iron traps.
The trappers, who have suffered through injury, sickness and exhaustion, finally have their moment and relief washes over them. As for the grasshoppers who have been lured into a trap through unnatural trickery, their path ends in a frying pan.
McCabe says: “ ‘Grasshopper Republic’ is an immersive exploration of Uganda’s grasshopper industry which meditates on the way humans engage with each other and the world around them.
“This is an environmental film, a film about human nature, survival, and the balance within communities. It is designed to draw the viewer in without overloading them with politics and data, letting the most important considerations rise to the surface organically.
“Conflicting questions about climate change, environmental impact, the corrupt tendencies of capitalism and food source sustainability are woven throughout, challenging the viewer to look inside themselves for reference and reflection.”
Petar Mitric, acquisitions executive at Taskovski Films, says: “We were attracted by powerful images and the story that has already hit the world through Michele Sibiloni’s highly acclaimed photographic book ‘Nsenene,’ published in 2021.
“Now for the first time we are facing this phenomenon on film. Learning that ‘Grasshopper Republic’ was made by the creative team behind ‘This Is Congo’ (2017), empowered by subtle music composed by Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, added the value to already high impressions.
“The film connects so many topics in a delicate way bringing out the survival balance between communities and ecosystems, raising questions about corrupt tendencies of capitalism, environmental impact, and food source sustainability.”
The producers are McCabe, Michele Sibiloni, Alyse Ardell Spiegel and Otto Bell. The production company is Nsenene Corp.
As a photo/video journalist, McCabe has covered gang conflict in Honduras, Kenya’s 2008 post-election violence, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2008-2015). He has traveled extensively in Africa and his work has appeared in National Geographic, the New York Times and Time Magazine, and on BBC, Al Jazeera and CNN.
McCabe’s first feature-length documentary film “This Is Congo” tells the story of four lives lived amongst war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It premiered in 2017 at the Venice Film Festival.