Movies about Africa continue to grab my attention.

Movies about Africa continue to grab my attention. It intrigues me that how such a rich continent for most part has nothing but misery and victims. Someone has rightly said that no one cares about Africa and one could clearly see that in either movies or documentaries.

takes us to the world where diamonds are not less than a curse. The movie, of course does nothing to break any kind of stereotype. It only reinforces the one that already exists about Africans as being exploited by the first world, that they are unruly and nothing can be done about some of the problems that exist there. And one of them being the illegal trading of the diamonds that continue to bring war, escalate poverty and tension in this region.

In the beginning I got a feeling as if this is going to be a predominantly blood and war doc with nothing substantial to offer. And I thought I would not learn anything new about what’s going on in Africa as far as the diamond business is concerned. But the journalist did a pretty good job at keeping the story simple and interesting.

The filmmaker surprised me with his to-the-point narration and also his physical presence throughout the movie. I am not sure if I would ever like to be THE face in my documentary but I kind of liked it in this one. It became my own journey to dig out the truth.  And the challenges of the filmmaker became my challenges. I felt as I am traveling with him to this uncharted territory as he travels to koidu, which lies in the east of Sierra Leone.

Looking at Africa, it is hard to comprehend that we are part of the same world. Growth and opportunities are such lost terms there. It’s would not have been easy to film on such a controversial topic in a place where guns do the talking.  

I laughed when I saw one of the doors of the journalist’s car missing. It symbolizes the limited resources that often-times journalists have to work with.

I just wish that the music was not as lively. For me it took away from the seriousness of the situation.

I did feel that at times the filmmaker was kind of an advocate for the people of Africa.  

Last but not the least, for me numbers do put things into perspective. So my favorite line from the doc was, “I have heard that for every pound of diamonds, 18 million pounds of earth must be removed,” said Reid.