NCLAFF: Este país que me robaron (This Stolen Country of Mine)

Dir. by Marc Wiese. Ecuador/ Germany. 2022. 93 min. Spanish with English subtitles. Free and open to the public. Q&A following the film moderated by Javier Pabón, Head, Humanities Division; Associate Professor of Modern Languages, Methodist University, and Ina Shkurti, UNC-CH Geography.

Chinese mining in Ecuador's mountains sets the stage for an epic battle between eco-guerrillas and a corrupt government in an intensely dramatic documentary. This Stolen Country of Mine follows Paúl Jarrín Mosquera, who leads the indigenous resistance against the exploitation of their land. Meanwhile, China uses the Ecuadorian government to turn the country into one of its new colonies, having made the country dependent on credit through a series of corrupt and greedy treaties. When journalist Fernando Villavicencio (assassinated in August) exposes these plots and gets access to the contracts between China and Ecuador, the government wants him silenced too. Both men are fighting for freedom in this battle against a superpower. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Marc Wiese, the film exposes China's massive hunger for natural resources and how during the last decade it has been aggressively operating to obtain access to these resources in Ecuador. The country is now stuck with the most Chinese debts in Latin America.