Ein Traum von Amerika (2002)

In 1955, farmer Wolf Lebrecht emigrated from Germany to the United States to fulfill his dream of owning his own farm. After years of hard work he eventually built up a 3000-acre farm in Idaho. However, by the mid-1990s he found himself being squeezed out by large agricultural corporations that bought up local potato processing plants, grain storage facilities and other agricultural businesses, and soon formed a cartel that began paying local farmers prices for their crops that were so low many of them are in danger of losing their farms--including Wolf. But dark clouds were growing over the farm's future. By the mid-1990s, globalization rained down upon Idaho with a vengeance. The world's second largest food corporation began buying local potato processing plants, grain facilities, fertilizer and pesticide merchants. Other multinationals followed suit. At the end of the 1990s, a cartel of powerful corporations controlled Idaho's markets for agricultural products. The prices paid to Wulf and his neighbors for their potatoes, grain, cattle and sheep reached an all time low. Not even 3000 acres seemed sufficient to make a living any more. American Dream is a film about one family's struggle to save their farm in the face of corporate greed. The film chronicles Wulf as he and his sons fight to preserve their livelihood. The film is also an indictment of big corporations who have squeezed out the small farmer. Behind Wulf's personal struggle, we see the economic landscape of agricultural markets that are increasingly monopolized by huge multinational corporations.