User Reviews

"Müll im Garten Eden" or "Garbage in the Garden of Eden" or "Polluting Paradise" is a German movie from 2012, so this one has its 5th anniversary. It is one of the lesser seen works by German/Turkish writer and director Faith Akin (by the way his new film is this year's official German Oscar submission) and one of the reasons for that is because it is entirely or almost entirely in the Turkish language, so if you got no subtitles, there is no point to watch it as it is really full of interviews like so many other documentaries. Another problem here is the general idea. It is about the official from a region/town in Turkey who decided to raise a garbage dump right next to a place where many people live. It is extremely specific and while the subject sure is controversial and important to those living there, I can understand when people say why would they care, especially if they have their own kind of struggles, about ecology and others in their own hometown. So the significance is missing and for example I would not really know any reason why I would recommend this film to people living near Fukushima or 'near earthquake areas or forest fire areas. It pales in comparison. And I must say at times that people constantly talking about how they couldn't eat because of the smell etc. is something that only makes you feel sorry for them to a certain level and then it gets a bit repetitive. The consequence is that I was hardly caring at all for the film in the second half. I guess this is a film that felt important to Akin for its own background and it is good it was made to create attention for this conflict and the execution was also competent, but the subject here is one that never really managed to make an impact on me and I am one who does care for the environment. Pity. I'd only recommend it to Turks I guess or people with a huge interest in the country/environment. Everybody else feel free to skip it.