In the early 1960s, a new species of Nile perch was introduced into the waters of Lake Victoria, forever altering the ecosystem of Africa's largest lake. Belgian director Hubert Sauper uses the predatory perch as a metaphor for globalization, as he documents the destruction of the traditional societies that live along the shores of Lake Victoria. European fish factories have replaced the traditional routines of local societies while aging Russian military transport planes make daily flights between Europe and Tanzania, importing Kalashnikovs and exporting the legendary perch while the local population survives on the discarded refuse. Sauper's remarkable documentary explores the confluence of environmental disintegration and a growing economy based on the exchange of cheap Russian weapons for the produce of local fisheries, a scenario that continues to fuel the region's protracted civil wars.