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SCARS OF GROWTH

While new mines are being built in Europe in the name of the green transition and mining companies are positioning themselves as climate allies, Hector, a Spanish farmer and Matti, an indigenous reindeer herder in Sweden are fighting to preserve their way of life. Green technologies require many critical metals which are mainly supplied by China. In order to reduce dependencies, politicians are in favour of reopening ‘green’ mines in Europe. But people like Hector and Matti, who live in these areas, fear being sacrificed to the energy transition. While the industry is lobbying in Brussels for the adoption of an EU law on critical raw materials to facilitate the opening of new mines and EU politicians focus on Green Growth as a solution to the climate crisis, Peruvian Diego from an environmental NGO is travelling across Europe to investigate whether mining can ever be truly sustainable. For French economist Timothée Parrique continuous growth is not a solution to the climate crisis: it is time for alternatives to our current economic growth model which is responsible for massive extraction of resources. He advocates for a ‘post-growth deal’ as a solution.

  • Monika Grassl
    Director
    GIRLS DON'T FLY
  • Linda Osusky
    Director
  • Linda Osusky
    Writer
  • Andrea Hess
    Producer
  • Danny Krausz
    Producer
  • Diego Francesco Marin
    Key Cast
  • Thimothée Parrique
    Key Cast
  • Hector Rodgrigez
    Key Cast
  • Matti Blind Berg
    Key Cast
  • Karin Niia Kvarvordt
    Key Cast
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    DAS ROHSTOFF-DILEMMA
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    TV Docu, investigative docu
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 30 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    November 3, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    355,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Austria, Germany
  • Country of Filming:
    Austria, Belgium, France, Spain, Sweden
  • Language:
    English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • FFIFDH Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights
    Geneva
    Switzerland
    March 10, 2025
    WORLD PREMIERE
    OFFICIAL FOCUS SELECTION
Distribution Information
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Director Biography - Monika Grassl, Linda Osusky

Monika was born in 1981 in Austria. From 2000 to 2005 she studied media management in Austria. She graduated in 2005 by writing a thesis about "The nature of documentary filmmaking". From 2008 to 2015 she studied documentary filmmaking at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Germany. During her studies she worked as a researcher for the House of Documentary Film in Stuttgart, Germany. From 2007 to 2014, she assisted on various projects of documentary film director Hubert Sauper. Since 2017 she has been working as a freelance filmmaker and editor in Paris, France. She has already realised three feature-length documentaries: In 2012 she directed her first documentary WHERE TIME STOPS. Her second film GIRLS DON'T FLY, about Ghanaian girls who face a cultural clash at an aviation school led by a British instructor, had its world premiere at Hot Docs and won the Max Ophüls Prize for Best Documentary.

Linda is a freelance investigative journalist, photographer and filmmaker with a focus on social and environmental topics. She holds a Master's degree in Cultural and Social Anthropology from the University of Vienna (Austria). For several months she lived in a Bedouin village in the south of Israel for her field research about feminism in the Middle East. Ever since Cultural and Social Anthropology shapes her approach in storytelling: observe, listen, participate. She authored and directed three short documentaries, wrote a script for a feature length documentary about Slovakia’s Robin Hood with funding from Austrian Ministry of Culture and the Slovak Audiovisual Fund.

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Director Statement

We are part of a generation, the Millenials, that has experienced the transition from a non-digitalized to a digitalized world. Today nobody wants to live without smartphones, laptops, digital cameras and many other electronic devices anymore. At the same time, we are confronted with one of the most threatening events of all time for humanity: climate change and the overshooting of planetary boundaries. Somehow we have closed our eyes to the hidden impacts of our modern lifestyle, capitalism and the impact of unlimited Growth: the depletion of limited resources, the environmental pollution and human exploitation, which are mostly happening in far away countries. And yet, we are increasing aware that our modern lifestyle is having dire consequences and that the fight against climate change will be crucial to the survival of humanity. Both have one thing in common: we will have a massively increasing need for metals.

What led us to work on SCARS OF GROWTH was this paradox and contradiction we and our generation are confronted with: while more and more call for a greener society and a cleaner industry, none want to restrain their consumption and mobility, and none want to have wind turbines and mining operations in their nice, clean European backyards.
Our film is more than the story of a few local activists opposing what is literally one of the most polluting businesses in human history. It is also about the question of whether we can go on like this and what we have to sacrifice for our modern and comfortable lifestyle. At the same time, we also want to plant a seed for the following question: Should the economy always grow?

In Monika's last film GIRLS DON'T FLY she dealt with the effects of post-colonialism in the West African country of Ghana. In SCARS OF GROWTH, we focus on economic colonialism that is imposed by the powerful center of Europe on those who live in the poorer periphery of our continent. But the issue is much more complex. Is it possible to meet higher environmental standards with European mines? Our film aims to get to the bottom of whether sustainable mines can really exist, or whether it is just European greenwashing.