• Run time: 53 minutes
• Original title: Eaux douces, eaux amères
• Country of origin: France

CMS VATAVARAN Environment and Wildlife Film Festival

Genre:

Synopsis:

“Nowadays people just don’t appreciate how important water is. People should save water even more than they save money. We can’t create rain. If we waste water, there will be none left.”
Tamil Selvan, farmer of Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu.

Two small villages in southern India now desperately trying to cope with dwindling water resources- from this very grass root level, Bittersweet Waters telescopes out into the history, the politics, the society and the developmental paradigms of a nation and explores and critiques the policies and decisions that have lead to the present state of affairs, thus offering a fresh take, a reality check on all that we have been taught to believe in. The movie takes us deep into history- to the Chola period where one of the first instances of water management in India can be found. Next it spotlights the post-independence days of the Green Revolution where in order to boost the economy of a primarily agrarian nation, irrigation was promoted but so were chemical fertilizers that while spurring the yield gradually made the land fallow and toxic. Later it examines the ‘bore-well fad’ which gripped the nation that ended up depleting the ground water resources before moving on to the phenomenon of the rise of the cities- which shifted the focus of the authorities and policy makers away from the villages. It is an important document of how the times have changed for the Indian nation, a reminder of her past mistakes and a cautionary tale for the future.(more)

• Director:

  Nathanael Coste & Nicolas Ploumpidis

• Writer(s):

  K Anupama, Olivia Aubriot, Nathanaël Coste, Yanni Gunnel and Nicolas Ploumpidis

• Producer(s):

  French Institute of Pondicherry

• Director of Photography:

  Nathanaël Coste and Nicolas Ploumpidis

• Cast and Credits:

  Sound: Nathanaël Coste and Nicolas Ploumpidis
  Editing:Nathanaël Coste
  Image calibration and DVD monitoring: Berger Corentin
  Sound editing: Clerno Nicolas
  Images 3 : Reoksis
  Voice over in English: Heater Joyce
  Voice over in French : Nina Renaux
  Voice over in Tamil : Seycha Karpagam // Dubbing voice in Tamil : Rengasamy Deven(more)

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