Brokopondo, verhalen van een verdronken land

Thirty years ago, the construction of the Brokopondo-dam and a subsequent hydro-electric plant gave an enormous impetus to the economy of Surinam. Due to its construction a reservoir arose which in turn flooded 27 villages, thereby forcing 5000 Surinam Maroons to flee their land, which till then had been isolated from western civilization. Today we become aware of the extreme consequences of the project for the native population. The Sarramaccan Maroons, who from the eighteenth century had lived a secluded life in the interior of Surinam, had to leave their original living and hunting areas to seek salvation either in trans-migratory villages created by the government, or in self-established villages deep inland. In the film director John Albert Jansen and his Surinam guide Dorus Vrede make a journey through the interiors of Surinam. They traced the origins of the Brokopondo project; the benefits the project has for the economy of Surinam and the consequences of the Maroon transmigration in their own stories and recollections. Their stories, illustrated by archival filmstock from the inundation of the villages, show how the western development policy in this case meant the disruption of a unique culture.