Lamalera, the Ultimate Battle

Lamalera: a remote village of 2 500 people on the southern coast of Indonesia. In this hostile land where nothing grows, people have managed to survive only thanks to a spectacular age-old hunt: the traditional and sacred harpooning of sperm whales. Despite danger and hard lives, the villagers have always been self-sufficient, living according to their traditions, far from globalization. But today, this balance is about to be broken. As people from a neighboring island start fishing with dynamite, the whales are disappearing. With no more whales to hunt, Lamalera is dying. In order to survive and feed their families, some villagers decide to embrace modernity and start using motors to fish further away from the island. But others want to preserve their traditional way of life at all costs, leading to a serious conflict of generations. Ancient social codes are falling apart. «Everybody for himself» is becoming the new model. Meanwhile, environmental protectionists are getting worried about overfishing and plan to turn the area into a natural reserve. What can we imagine for the last whale hunters? When globalization strikes and people are torn between the preservation of traditions and the need for modernity, discover how an entire village has to confront a new kind of battle, an ultimate battle—for their survival.