Series

Anyone who thought that the era of alternative facts and large-scale economic intrigues only began with Trump and his armada of willing henchmen and women, each with their own agendas, may find themselves rubbing their eyes in disbelief. Because, first of all, the market has been driven by greed for oil for a long time, and second, its scarcity has apparently always brought all sorts of bizarre plans and players onto the scene. Take, for example, the French-Belgian prestige production “Eldorado,” set against the backdrop of the desperate search for black gold during the 1973 oil crisis. Here, the research team—comprising a Belgian aristocratic physicist and a shrewd Italian television technician—becomes partners with Elf Aquitaine, who claim to be able to identify not only water but also oil deposits from the air using a physical measuring device. Like many other business models, it’s a bit of a pipe dream, kept alive for investors with all sorts of technical tricks. Based on one of the biggest fraud scandals in recent French economic history, the plot of “Eldorado” functions as a blueprint for numerous deepfake and business fantasies.