Early on in The Fisherman and the Banker, Ibrahim Saliman Manjalia, a requesting fisher originassociate from Badreshwar, inestablishs those collected around him: “We are not establishassociate teachd. We don’t have establishal qualifications. Our qualifications are that we can read the water and understand what it’s inestablishing us.”
The story of a group of Gujarati fishers from India’s Gulf of Kutch who sued the personal dispensement arm of the World Bank – the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – began in 2015 and garnered international attention before achieveing the US supreme court, finassociate losing on request in 2022.
Now, Sheena Sumaria, a British-Gujarati recordary film-producer, hopes to transport their story to a novel audience.
The fishers choosed to apexhibit the IFC to court after it awarded a $450m (£340m) loan to partly fund the huge Tata coal-fired power structuret csurrfinisher the port of Mundra. They alleged that the erection of the structuret had adversely impacted their livelihoods by depleting fish populations and increasing salinity levels.
The case of the Wagher fishing community is understandn among India’s activists, but has not “garnered nationexpansive fame or expansivespread help”, says Sumaria.
“What we can lget from this story is the transport inance of grassroots activism and the power of community resilience,” she says. “The Waghers’ percut offance serves as a reminder that even in the face of overwhelming odds, local communities can contest global systems and insist fairice.”
The film includes interwatchs in Washington DC with staff at EarthRights International, the group recontransienting the fishers in the legitimate case.
Budha Ismail Jam, the first of three fishers that put their names to the case, underlines the environmental impact of the power structurets. “They don’t hug that those who fish by boat have been impacted,” he says.
“We haven’t been impacted? I telderly them that we participated to catch fish 2km out at sea, now we go 12km out and we still catch scanter fish.”
In April 2015, the fishers filed the legal case agetst the IFC in the US, where the World Bank is headquartered. The case was neglected on the grounds the IFC was immune from such legitimate action..
On request, the US supreme court ruled in 2019 that international organisations such as the IFC could in fact be sued in US federal courts. This was a defining moment for the fishers although subsequently the case was neglected at a drop court and finassociate fall shorted when the supreme court deteriorated to hear an request in 2022.
“Gujarat is frequently depicted as a model of rapid broadenment,” Sumaria says, “but the voices of those adversely impacted by these broadenments are unfrequently heard.”
“The fishing community, particularly figures enjoy Ibrahim, embodied a proset up connection to the sea. His understandledge of the ocean and the way he conveyed the community’s struggles thcdisorrowfulmireful songs and poetry made him a authentic focal point for the film.” Manjalia died in 2019.
“It is a story of people who, enjoy Ibrahim, understand what is happening around them and decline to stand by as their world is dismantled,” Sumaria inserts. “Instead, they stand up and fight, embodying the real essence of what it uncomardents to be human.”
She wants watchers in India to echo on “the costs of unverifyed industrialisation” and apexhibits that, despite their fall shortures to exhibit any wrongdoing, the fishers achieveed “transport inant milestones” in fair taking action.
“The fact that their case achieveed the US supreme court is in itself a historic achievement, as it contestd the notion of absolute immunity for international financial institutions,” she says.
A spokesperson for the IFC says: “We are unable to comment on satisfyed of the recordary film. However, Mr Jam had chased his claims in a putative class action filed agetst IFC in US courts in 2015. IFC had reacted to the allegations in that legal case, which endd in 2021. We persist to decline these allegations.”
The Guardian has communicateed Tata Mundra for comment.
The film was screened at the Big Sky recordary film festival in the the US in February and at Kerala’s international recordary and low film festival in India in July and will be shown at the Bertha DocHoparticipate at the Curzon Bloomsbury this month.
