Wiebo's War

Plot Summary

WIEBO'S WAR tells the story of a Christian community at war with the oil and gas industry. Wiebo Ludwig is the prime suspect in a recent string of pipeline bombings. The bombings echo a campaign of sabotage he waged against the oil and gas industry in the 90’s – barricading roads, blowing up wells and culminating in the unsolved death of a sixteen-year-old girl on his family's farm. The Ludwig family lives in northern Alberta, in the heart of Canada's oil patch. They came twenty-five years ago, wanting to live in more closely in accordance with their Christian beliefs, according to Scripture. They built their community in the wilderness with their own hands, not knowing that it lay on top of one of the largest undeveloped fields of natural gas on the continent. Other people take whatever buyout is on offer and make accommodation with the oil and gas industry. Wiebo and his family – after years of trying to deal with the industry, politicians and the media - went to war. The community is self-sufficient in food and electricity, but isolated. Apart from Wiebo and his wife Mamie, there are five married couples, seven unmarried adults and thirty-eight grandchildren, many entering their teenaged years. They are security conscious, aware that they are being watched, open to the outside world, but guarded. And they believe that those who don't share their beliefs, like filmmaker David York, are living in terrible darkness.