After several suspicious deaths, journalist Inès Léraud decided to move to Brittany to investigate the phenomena of ‘green tides’ that is thought to be linked to the deaths. There she realised the extent of the silence surrounding this environmental issue due to the strong interests of the agri-food industry in this region. Her work resulted in the graphic novel Algues vertes, l’histoire interdite together with Pierre Van Hove, published in 2019, which has now been adapted to a film by director Pierre Jolivet.

But Brittany is not the only region in Europe where pollution from agriculture causes issues.  More than 80% of marine waters and more than 30% of coastal and inland waters in the EU are reported to be eutrophic. Eutrophication consists in the increase of nutrients in aquatic ecosystems, that lead to the growth of algae and other plants depleting the water in oxygen for other organisms.

Not only is this causing a threat to the environment and the human right to water, but water pollution is also impacting businesses relying on clean and healthy waters, including tourism and the fisheries sector.

After the full screening of the movie, participants will be able to discuss more in-depth with the director of the movie, Pierre Jolivet, and different stakeholders from civil society and environmental NGOs.