Un Dragon dans les eaux pures du Caucase (The Pipeline Next Door). 2005. Directed by Nino Kirtadze

Un Dragon dans les eaux pures du Caucase (The Pipeline Next Door). 2005. France. Directed by Nino Kirtadze. In English, Georgian, Russian; English subtitles. 90 min.

David faces Goliath when a village of Georgian farmers takes on the BP oil corporation in this evenhanded, character-driven documentary. Kirtadze’s verité approach captures the negotiations, breakdowns, heartbreak, and anger, surrounding BP’s purchase of Georgian countryside to construct a 1,700-kilometer pipeline from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea. The villagers try for solidarity but find envy and mistrust as their way of life is crudely upended, and the BP spokespeople are caught in the unending march toward a supposedly ever-brighter future.