The Cove

Yesterday I watched The Cove - and there are some spoilers in this post, I should add. It's about a group of activists that set out to try to film the secretive slaughter of thousands of dolphins that takes place in Taiji, Japan every year. Even though it's 'PG' in what it shows, it's distressing, not least because they managed to get audio of the dolphins communicating from the moment they are herded to the moment they are killed. These are emotional, communal beings with intelligence and communication we are too ignorant to understand but the worst part is that the slaughter is pointless. Once herded, the sealife park people come and pick the ones they want to train to (literally) jump through hoops (so think twice before your next trip to Seaworld) then the remaining dolphins are killed by harpoon until the cove is red, their mercury-laden flesh either given free to school children or sold pretending to be shark or other delicacies.
The attitudes of the local people and authorities puts me in mind of The Lottery - the film makers suggest that it's really just a question of face-saving and maintaining a 'tradition' for the sake of maintaining it. Here is the director talking to the lovely Jian Ghomeshi on Q. And here is the trailer:

In any case, I do recommend it - it's not gratuitously bloodthirsty and their midnight filming escapades are like something out of a Bond movie.