Schlësselwuert Opium

Henry Drax is a harpooner and brutish killer whose amorality has been shaped to fit the harshness of his world, who will set sail on a whaling expedition to the Arctic with Patrick Sumner, a disgraced ex-army surgeon who signs up as the ship’s doctor. Hoping to escape the horrors of his past, Sumner finds himself on an ill-fated journey with a murderous psychopath. In search of redemption, his story becomes a harsh struggle for survival in the Arctic wasteland.

History of the narcotics trade in Burma and the War on Drugs. In 1964, director Adrian Cowell and cameraman Chris Menges went to mountainous eastern Burma to film the Shan revolutionary forces fighting a bloody civil war against the military dictatorship. The impoverished Shans had only one way to finance the war: opium. Cowell has returned several times over the last 30 years to record the ongoing civil war and the burgeoning opium trade. The first and last episodes are produced in association with WGBH/FRONTLINE.