Apple Stories

Taking the Apple iPhone as an example, the documentary investigates the conditions under which today's smart phones are produced. This leads the filmmakers on a journey around half the world: Hamburg, Rwanda, Kairo, Hongkong and the Chinese city of Shenzhen are among the locations which play an important role in the manufacturing of the popular phones. The grand opening of a new Apple store in Hamburg is contrasted with the harsh working conditions in Rwanda's cassiterite mines and China's sterile factories. The film also ventures into the illegal lairs of product pirates and explores the international trade with cassiterite, which is indispensable for phone production and has thus become a conflict mineral. In interviews, environmental activists, scientists and workers' rights advocates speak of their mostly futile attempts at improving working conditions and at creating greater awareness for the ecological perils of smart phone production.