Since ancient times, the betelnut has been a socially accepted narcotic in coastal Papua New Guinea, but in the Highlands, where a majority of the population lives, it is a recent arrival. Many Highlanders depend on the betelnut, both because many families earn their livelihood trading small quantities of the drug and because they have increasingly become addicted to it.

This film follows the fortunes of one family, Lukus Kalma and his wife Kopu, as told by their neighbor, Chris Owen, an Australian expatriate and documentary filmmaker (Man Without Pigs, Bridewealth for a Goddess). Lukus owns no land and lives on a small plot with soil too poor to grow food. He works part-time as a watchman and laborer but can’t make ends meet, so he embarks upon a business venture of buying betelnuts from growers on the coast and reselling them at home.

Because the local currency has been devalued so greatly, anything Papa New Guineans cannot produce themselves is very expensive, making many basic necessities difficult to come by. Even water is in short supply. So while some turn to crime, most of the “grassroots” people struggle on, hoping to earn a few dollars for a tin of meat, a bag of rice, and some betelnuts to keep going.

Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival, 2005
Pusan International Film Festival, Korea, 2005
Best Documentary, ACT Film Awards, 2004
Bilan du Film Ethnographic, Paris, 2005