Blood Diamond [2006]
Director: Edward Zwick
Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly
This is a gripping story about two men, whose lives become closely intertwined when the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) is pushing back the government forces of Sierra Leone in the early 90s. One man, Danny Archer (DiCaprio) finds his trade (former-mercenary-turned-diamond-smuggler) hindered by the war, while he tries desperately to find a way to make enough money to get out of Africa. Another man, Solomon Vandy (Hounsou) finds his once peaceful village overrun, his eldest son taken as a child-soldier for the RUF, his wife and daughter sent fleeing, and himself taken as a slave to work in one of the many diamond rich areas of Sierra Leone.
The come together when Solomon finds a huge, 100+ carat diamond which he tries to keep from his slavers, right before government forces overrun the mining camp and take everyone prisoner. He manages to bury the diamond before being captured, however, but when word gets out in prison that he had found the diamond, Danny (also in prison for smuggling) decides to get close to him in order to get the diamond. Danny does it for the money, Solomon in order to get his son back. Together they travel through a war-torn Sierra Leone in search for the diamond and Solomon’s family.
It’s very powerful. Not Hotel Rwanda powerful, but it comes close. It’s made extra powerful by the fact that diamonds are traded over the backs of slaves, and sold to our fat, white arses in the west. We don’t realise what has happens sometimes to get us our engagement rings, or diamond-studded earrings. This film portrays the worst of days, before the Kimberley accord.
“T.I.A.; This is Africa.” A cold comfort that people remind themselves of whenever something bad happens to them. As if bad luck, bad fortune is somehow inextricably tied to Africa.