12.02.07 Blood Diamond - range: bling-bang

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Blood Diamond - Leonardo di Caprio as Danny Archer Blood Diamond - Jennifer Connelly as Maddy Bowen Blood Diamond - Djimon Hounsou as Solomon Vandy

This Is Afrika

Authentic. Our feeling to Blood Diamond stands in contrast to the opinions of most (German) film reviewer.

That probably belongs to the fact, that we met them in heart of Africa, obscure mercenaries, Kalashnikovs carried by yobs, muzzles directed toward us not only once, night-time shootings in the city riddled by civil wars, the child soldier, toned by his contradictory emotions, not knowing whether he shall cry about his lost youth or weep the successful combat acts, insinuations about the meat supply between the fronts, the “Coltan“ whispering man, who secretly showed us an opened handkerchief, the Boers for whom red earth means home or the Aid Worker, stood three days in his bath tub because of fighting in his quarter …. Many scenes of our Africa-overland journey suddenly come alive, above all CAR (Central African Republic) and the South of Sudan or many discussions with weird characters in bizarre environments e.g. in the Diamond Diggers Backpacker (with view over the No-Go-Area Johannesburg Down Town), whose owner offers diamond courses. The film looks so realistic to us, that we got the impression, quotations were stolen from us: T. I. A. - This Is Africa.

Some people did their homework very well. It is far more than an outstanding actor performance of Leonardo di Caprio, who even imitates the hard South African slang. The pub at the edge of the civilization, where the mercenary unavoidably meets the journalist, monologues about African existence, ethnic groups, which were not conglomerate from the whole continent like in many other filmstrips - the atmosphere of the movie is coherent. „Pictures of suffering and dying are contrasted again and again by picturisations of spectacular landscapes and sunsets in widest wide format. T.I.A. - this is Africa.“ (Die Welt). The incomprehensible contradictions of the continent - enormous wealth and incredible human misery - are not only impressive productions, as well as the bright smile and inconceivable atrocities. If somebody did not spend several months on this continent he probably takes the storybook characters and the storylines like the quoted Sven von Reden (Die Welt) for T. I. H. – this is Hollywood. What the film reviewer do not know: You meet these characters there. And after 18 months only one explanation for the many little daily irrational courses of action and ways of thinking of the continent remained: T. I. A - this is Africa.

Even the fatalistic attitude to the own situation and the behaviours of the own government or nation finds an echo in the film: An old man, whose village was just overrun by the rebel front, states „Thank God, they didn’t found oil in our country, then we would have real problems“. Such quotations are not made up. And the last dot on the i are strange coincidences - five years before half of th continent already went in Leonardo die Caprio shirts …

Only the bright smile of Africa act out rarely in Blood Diamond. But the beautiful side of the continent is not subject of this movie. It’s about so-called Conflict Diamonds. The mining and trade of diamonds in unstable countries gives impetus for the flourishing arms deal. And it’s about an appeal to the consumers to inform them before purchasing jewels. A promising approach to separate the bloody from the less bloody gemstones –„the good into the pot, the bad into the crop “. Actually a much bigger stereotype one would like to believe in not only at Hollywood, but also at DeBeers (diamondfacts) at the UN (kimberleyprocess) and at amnesty international (blooddiamondaction). In a globalised world and with an upcoming market for diamonds in Dubai which is not longer controlled only by DeBeers, that won’t work as simple, because, one can guess it already - this is Africa where it is not “bling-bling, out here it’s bling-bang ". And not necessarily only bloody diamonds must be the problem as the recent history of the San in Botswana (GfbV) shows, even if it looks like an unexpected Happy End (taz & irin news). That is Africa, too.



Die Welt 21.01.2007: Diamanten können ziemlich blutig sein
diamondfacts: www.diamondfacts.org
kimberleyprocess: www.kimberleyprocess.com
blooddiamondaction: www.blooddiamondaction.org
Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker 14.12.2006: Joy over court judgment in Botswana - Bush people can return to Kalahari
Die Tageszeitung 14.12.2006: Vertreibung aus Kalahari-Wüste illegal
irinnews 19.01.2007: President visits San to map out the future


Blood Diamond

Blood Diamond

blooddiamondmovie.warnerbros.com
wikipedia: Blood Diamond

Directed by Edward Zwick; written by Charles Leavitt, based on a story by Mr. Leavitt and C. Gaby Mitchell; director of photography, Eduardo Serra; edited by Steven Rosenblum; music by James Newton Howard; production designer, Dan Weil; produced by Mr. Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz, Paula Weinstein, Graham King and Gillian Gorfil; released by Warner Brothers Pictures.
Running time: 138 minutes.

starring: Leonardo DiCaprio (Danny Archer), Jennifer Connelly (Maddy Bowen), Djimon Hounsou (Solomon Vandy), Michael Sheen (Simmons), Arnold Vosloo (the Colonel), Kagiso Kuypers (Dia), David Harewood (Captain Poison), Basil Wallace (Benjamin) and Ntare Mwine (M’ed).

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