This documentary offers two battles. The one portrayed in the film concerns a conflict between the fruit giant Dole and a group of Nicaraguan workers who sued the company in 2007 for having used illegal pesticide on banana farms, which the workers claimed made them sterile. The battle that took place outside the film concerned a legal effort mounted by Dole to stop the movie from being shown. Ironically enough, Dole won the case against the workers, but lost face in their fight against director Fredrik Gertten and had to drop a defamation lawsuit. As a film, Bananas!* gets a few points across, but the human drama falls in the shadow of the legal maneuvering.
2009-Sweden-Denmark-U.S.-Germany-Norway-Finland-Switzerland-The Netherlands-Spain. 80 min. Color. Directed by Fredrik Gertten.
Trivia: Followed by Big Boys Gone Bananas!* (2012).
