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Silas
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Silas
IDFA 2017

Silas

Anjali Nayar, Hawa Essuman
Canada, South Africa, Kenya
2017
80 min
European Premiere
Festival history

The Liberian environmental activist Silas Siakor puts his heart and soul into fighting for community rights and exposing corruption. Growing up during the rule of convicted war criminal Charles Taylor, Siakor saw valuable raw materials leave his country as weapons entered. In 2005, this inspired him to support the democratically-elected president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who promised change. When this change fails to come, Siakor and his colleagues at his Sustainable Development Institute use an encrypted mobile phone app to show the international community how human rights in Liberia continue to be widely violated. Meanwhile, companies that are destroying the environment still have the upper hand. Siakor's passionate fight also has a flip side, as both his family life and his health are beginning to suffer. Over the course of five years, we follow Siakor on a thrilling investigation that inspires a generation of young activists to raise their smartphones and demand change.

Credits
Director
Cinematography
    Anjali Nayar,
    Joan Poggio
Editing
Screening copy
    Cinephil
    Cinephil
Executive producer
    Leonardo DiCaprio,
    Jennifer Davisson Killoran,
    Edward Zwick,
    Jonathan Stack
    Leonardo DiCaprio,
    Jennifer Davisson Killoran,
    Edward Zwick,
    Jonathan Stack
Sound
Music
    Brendan Canning,
    Ohad Benchetrit
    Brendan Canning,
    Ohad Benchetrit