The Chocolate Farmer

Rohan Fernando's lyrical Canadian documentary scrutinizes a dying way of life in Central America. Eladio Pop, 50, is a cacoa (chocolate) farmer of Mayan descent maintaining a small-scale family plantation in Belize, growing his crop organically, and resisting the pressures of multinational corporations who buy up surrounding land and deploy vast machines and cancer-causing pesticides to maximize their production output. Of Eladio's many children, an eldest son is an activist who tries (without much onscreen success) to unite fellow farmers and ethnic Mayans in a cooperative business effort against American economic imperialism. A younger son, besotted with the USA's hip-hop culture, leaves the farm to make his way in the touristy climes of Belize, but—not finding any jobs—the prodigal returns and belatedly learns to appreciate his heritage. While Eladio's enterprise receives a hopeful 11th-hour redo as part of the “eco-tourism” movement, the ultimate outcome of this chocolate saga is more melancholy. Featuring both the English and French versions on the same disc, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)