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Poppy Crash

View on the Pragda STREAM site

Radiant red poppies fill the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, and the sale of their opium paste allows families to send children to school, build homes, and put food on the table.

Poppy Crash examines this largely indigenous farmers’ dependence on a volatile heroin market. When illicit crop cultivation is reduced, farmers migrate, join criminal groups or try to get by harvesting corn.

This intimate portrait of rural life diverts the lens from mass death caused by fentanyl overdoses and encourages viewers to reflect on the impact of global drug policies on those who slice poppy flowers just to survive.