That's Africa

Rating: 7/10 (21 March 2007)

Do you notice any blood on your diamond ring when you look at it Madam? No? Then go to see this movie and you'll notice it next time. The most remarkably good features of this movie are the reality of today's Africa and the amazing rhythm of the cut and the images with no dead moments. Particularly remarkable are the constant contrast of the appalling African sequences with the meetings and forums in the comfortable atmosphere of the First World where some dressy gentlemen discuss the problems of the diamond trade in a distant and unaffected way while a lot of bloodshed occurs because of it. This movie shows us a truth that can no longer be ignored after viewing it. In parallel with the struggle for the command of the diamond trade our attention is also drawn to the problem of the children soldiers in which the little children are changed into little killing monsters after being violently abducted from their families and subjected to a terrible brainwashing. The romantic and idealistic story which is the backbone of the movie, joining a white smuggler and a poor African fisherman has got a few flaws perhaps for excess of idealism but it arrives of moving us in the end. Maybe human nature is not so bad indeed after all. Those two characters are looking with different aims for a most invaluable diamond the fisherman has hidden underground. The smuggler wants the money it will give him while the fisherman wants only to be helped in finding his son that a rebel army has kidnapped to make him a child soldier. There is also the sentimental relationship between the smuggler and the woman journalist which occurs in an almost chaste and restrained atmosphere though we can feel its real deepness in some dialogues and even in some silences for instance when the woman caresses the smuggler's hand after he has told her how his parents were killed in Zimbabwe; we can feel his contained emotion after he finishes his story. This is one of the most moving scenes of the movie. But I need hardly say that in this movie nobody goes to bed with nobody. The fact is that we don't even see a single kiss which is rare in movies nowadays. And it looks like the most violent sequences which are numerous and admirably filmed are done without resorting to any special effects or computer tricks which makes them to appear extremely real.