Winner of the Open Class of the Year, TV/VIDEO at the Danish Press Photo of the Year 2022
Gold, College Photographer of the Year in the Multimedia: Documentary Short
By Nichlas Pollier & Martin Thomas Ford
For over a decade up until 2017, Estonia has had the highest number of overdoses per capita in Europe. The use of (injected) fentanyl has been a major cause of the high number of deaths. In the following years, according to the Estonian government, the crackdown on fentanyl has been successful and the task was labelled as being the end of the fentanyl epidemic. What they failed to anticipate was that users were instead experimenting with mixing different synthetic drugs. This resulted in a new opioid called analogue fentanyl, which simulates the feeling of pure fentanyl, but is reportedly to be both stronger and more dangerous. The documentary follows Mairold, a 27-year-old father who has been kicked out of his home by his girlfriend. Mairold has been stuck in a strong fentanyl addiction since he was 15 years old, and today he is walking a fine line trying to live a normal life as a family man.