What drives people to live here? That was the initial question for the film maker Jasmin Herold when she set out to visit the Canadian city of Fort McMurray, where the Athabasca oil sands are being extracted. What was planned as a research trip turned into a three-year stay during which she met her partner and co-director Michael Beamish. But DARK EDEN is not a story about romance. It is an eco-thriller that shows the deadly consequences of oil sand extraction – based on the moving stories of the people who actually live there.