Jeremy Irons stands on a beach beside the ancient Lebanese city of Sidon. Above him towers a mountain of rubbish-a pullulating eyesore of medical waste, household trash, toxic fluids and dead animals-the result of thirty years of consumption by just one small city out of how many in the world? As the day’s new consignments
Jeremy Irons stands on a beach beside the ancient Lebanese city of Sidon. Above him towers a mountain of rubbish-a pullulating eyesore of medical waste, household trash, toxic fluids and dead animals-the result of thirty years of consumption by just one small city out of how many in the world? As the day’s new consignments are tipped on top, debris tumbles off the side and into the blue of the Mediterranean. Surrounded by a vast reach of plastic bottles, a forlorn Jeremy Irons stares at the horizon. “Appalling,” he mutters.
In the new docu-feature TRASHED, a Blenheim Films production, produced and directed by British filmmaker Candida Brady (Madam and the Dying Swan), which was selected to receive a Special Screening at the Cannes Film Festival, Irons sets out to discover the extent and effects of the global waste problem, as he travels around the world to beautiful destinations tainted by pollution. This is a meticulous, brave investigative journey that takes Irons (and us) from scepticism to sorrow and from horror to hope. Brady’s narrative is vividly propelled by an original score created by Academy Award winning composer Vangelis.
The beauty of our planet from space forms a violent contrast to the scenes of human detritus across the globe. Vast landscapes in China are covered in tons of rubbish. The wide waters of the Ciliwung River in Indonesia are now barely visible under a never-ending tide of plastic. Children swim among leaking bags; mothers wash in the sewage-filled supply. Each year, we now throw away fifty-eight billion disposable cups, billions of plastic bags, 200 billion litres of water bottles, billions of tons of household waste, toxic waste and e-waste.
With the participation of: Jeremy Irons
Music composed by: Vangelis
Written and Directed by: Candida Brady
Produced by: Candida Brady & Titus Oglivy
Executive Producers: Candida Brady & Titus Oglivy, Jeremy Irons & Tom Wesel
Edited by: James Coward & Kate Coggins, Jamie Trevill
Art Director: Garry Waller
Director of Photography: Sean Bobbitt BSC
Production: Blenheim Films
Post-production: The Mill, Creativity Media
Language: English (with Slovenian subtitles)
Running Time: 97 minutes
Links: official homepage, IMDB, official photo gallery
Awards: winner of “Palme Verte” at UK Green Film Festival 2013; winner at 30th International Environmental Film Festival 2013 (Special documentary award); special screening at Cannes 2012 film festival and many other film awards.
Round table: Slovenia on its path towards Zero Waste, 8 pm, admission free
Round table guests:
Mr Joan Marc Simon, Zero Waste Europe, Executive Director
representative of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food (unconfirmed)
Andrej Kržan, PhD, Institute of Chemistry, Slovenia, Senior Scientific Associate
Mr Uroš Macerl, Eko krog NGO, representative
Round table hosted by: Eva Kobe, journalist
Organised by: Kino Šiška / Ekologi brez meja Association / Institute of Chemistry, Slovenia
