Blood in the Mobile

Blood in the Mobile is a film that shows a direct connection between the suffering and bloodshed in the Eastern Congo and us here in the Western World. It is an investigation on how far responsibility goes.

Year

2010

Length

82 min

Director

Frank Piasecki Poulsen

The main part of minerals used to produce cell phones are coming from the mines in the Eastern DR Congo. The Western World is buying these so-called conflict minerals and thereby finances a civil war that, according to human rights organisations, has been the bloodiest conflict since World War II: During the last 15 years until the release of this film the conflict has cost the lives of more than 5 million people and 300.000 women have been raped. The war will continue as long as armed groups can finance their warfare by selling minerals.

If you ask the phone companies where their suppliers get minerals from, none of them can guarantee that they aren’t buying conflict minerals from the Congo.

The Documentary Blood in the Mobile shows the connection between our phones and the civil war in the Congo. Director Frank Poulsen travels to DR Congo to see the illegal mine industry with his own eyes. He gets access to Congo’s largest tin-mine, which is being controlled by different armed groups, and where children work for days in narrow mine tunnels to dig out the minerals that end up in our phones.

Credits

Director
Frank Piasecki Poulsen

Producer
Ole Tornbjerg

Cinematographer
Adam Wallensten
Lars Skree
Frank Piasecki Poulsen

Editor
Mikael K. Ebbesen

Production manager
Christina Pihl
Pia Nielskov
Kathrin Isberner

Co-producer
Christian Beetz

Executive producers
Ole Tornbjerg
Jens Ulrik Pedersen

Sales & distribution

Trailer

„Just in diesem Moment überraschen uns die aus dem Theaterbereich stammenden jungen Regisseure Hans Block und Moritz Riesewieck mit einem erstaunlichen Dokumentarfilm, der seit Monaten Publikum und Kritik auf den wichtigsten Festivals der Welt elektrisiert. Völlig zu Recht: Es ist, als würden einem die Scheuklappen weggerissen, als sähe man das, was sich seit Jahren direkt vor unseren Augen abspielt, zum ersten Mal unverschleiert... eine fesselnde ,Doku noir' mit höchstem Anspruch...Dieser Film müsste an allen Schulen gezeigt werden.“

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

17.05.2018