This is the true and ongoing story of the fight for compensation of the 30,000 people of the Ecuadorean Amazon against Chevron, the oil corporation alleged to have left so much pollution on their land in the rainforest that cancer and sickness have become commonplace.
Chevron, which took over the activities of Texaco there, claims that the Ecuadorean company which first drilled in the area was responsible for the mess left behind and that a chronic lack of drainage, which allowed effluent to pour into the river, did the rest.
But the inhabitants, represented by Pablo Fajardo, a young and inexperienced lawyer, and backed up by Rafael Correa, the newly elected president of Ecuador, won some notable victories.
At the time of the making of the film, the result of Chevron's appeal had yet to be released.
Joe Berlinger's film is a suitably forensic dissection of an ecological disaster and much less of a crusading piece of polemic than documentaries such as An Inconvenient Truth.
There is no need for a voiceover when the oily sludge says it all.
Even the appearance, and vocal support, of Trudie Styler, fashionably attired and holding a parasol, isn't strictly necessary - but at least she ensured that celebrity endorsements went to the right side.
Crude
