Endless beaches, majestic mountains and villages with multi-coloured houses: Cape Verde has become one of the hottest new destinations for Instagrammers. Here, tourists can enjoy a week in an all-inclusive resort for as little as €700, including travel. But virtually none of this benefits the islands. Indeed, the lack of opportunities and a severe drought mean that some women have to resort to stealing sand from the sea floor to survive.
The islands are on the frontline of global warming. It has hardly rained in the past seven years. While tourists enjoy numerous, huge swimming pools and are unaware of the crisis, families in Cape Verde are restricted to a few 25-litre containers of water per day. All food and supplies for the hotels are imported from wherever they can be sourced cheapest, providing no benefit to the local economy.
On many of the islands’ beaches, the sand has completely disappeared; for years, the women of Ribeira da Barca have been stealing sand to sell to the construction industry. These women carry no fewer than 50 kilograms of sand on their heads each trip. Most of them can’t swim, so they are risking their lives every time they enter the sea; for this, they earn approximately a mere €10 a week.
This documentary reveals the harsh realities behind Cape Verde’s beauty, exposing the struggles of its people amid environmental crisis and economic inequality.
This documentary was produced by Kraken Films and directed by Michelle Fines. It was first released in 2025.
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How incredibly incompetent are the government, you have an ocean around you and you can’t glean the moisture from the evaporation and also stop burning wood , what happened to solar energy and also wind power ?
Pure capitalism at display 😢