1498; the arrival of the Conquistadores and the discovery of the world’s richest pearl beds create an unbreakable bond between enslaved native Charaima and African Dembe against the greedy and murderous European invaders.

SYNOPSIS:

BLOOD FOR PEARLS

The Holocaust of the Sixteenth Century

Based on True Events

SYNOPSIS

GENRE: Historical Action/Adventure

LOGLINE: 1498; the arrival of the Conquistadores and the discovery of the world’s richest pearl beds meant vast riches for the European monarchy and the genocide of the local population, African slaves, and the destruction of the ecological habitat.

MAIN CHARACTERS

CHARAIMA, the innocent teenage son of the Guaiquery Cacique (chieftain) who initially becomes friends with Pedro, who is the same age and part of Columbus’ crew. Showing the Conquistadores the exact location of the rich pearl beds, he eventually is shackled and enslaved as are his peers. As a forced pearl diver and fearing for his life, he buries a clay jar and collects pearls, hidden from his enslavers. DEMBE, an African slave and excellent diver, leader of his people, who befriends Charaima and continues to collect pearls in the jar, after Charaimas passing. CORA, who was supposed to become Charaimas wife, but is forcefully taken by Pedro and becomes his suffering concubine and PEDRO, who arrives with Columbus, an ill-mannered and sadist, initially gaining the natives trust, but ultimately becoming the dominant evil entity who enslaves the natives and Africans and forces them to dive for pearls from dawn to dusk in the most horrible conditions, killing most of them in the process. He ultimately dies at the hands of Dembe who pulls him into the shark infested waters.

LOCATION

CUBAGUA, a tiny island, is the epicenter of this story, devoid of vegetation and fresh water, but with the highest concentration of pearl bearing oyster beds.

THEME

A central theme of “Blood for Pearls” is GREED. Over the course of fifteen years, we see a coastal and tropical paradise where the people there had wanted for nothing, go from splendor to ruin. Foreigners bring their treasure-hunting lust for riches to the island where the pearl beds are located and destroy the nearby native villages in the process. As the invaders turn the land into a colonial outpost while they mine all the pearls it has to offer, the area becomes polluted with thousands upon thousands of discarded rotting oyster shells and the corpses of the dead native and African slaves. The overall contamination caused by greed, violence, and diseases covers this once paradisiac area with a dark mantle of despair and hopelessness.

During the initial fifteen years of what would become known as “The Pearl Coast” about eleven tons of pearls were exported to Spain, exceeding all the other exports combined, including gold, emeralds, and slaves, impacting the economic splendor of the European monarchies.

The sole survivor is Dembe, who escapes after killing Pedro, rowing towards the ominous and dark clouds of an approaching hurricane. After all the pearl beds are depleted and the island is desolate once again, a hurricane destroys what is left, as by the wrath of superior forces to eliminate any remaining evidence of the horrific past.

TIMELAPSE

450 years later a buried clay jar filled with pearls is discovered on that same island and emptied in front of cameras.