The documentary MATERIA PRIMA – NEW ENERGY. OLD POWERS? offers a rare glimpse into Europe’s strategies for securing the Bolivian lithium urgently needed for the energy transition. It highlights the conflicting interests surrounding raw material extraction and industrialization in a country of the so-called Global South. This is all overshadowed by 500 years of colonial history. Texts from the chronicle of a 16th-century Indigenous eyewitness shift our perspective on today’s world and raise the question: Are we ready for decolonization?

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The screening will be followed by a discussion with director Jens Schanze.