Highly recommended as a sobering companion piece to Hollywood's relatively-sanitized version of the same subject-matter in Blood Diamond.
Comment
12/26/06
The Empire in Africa (2006)
67 %
Reviews Counted: 9 Fresh: 6 Rotten:3 Average Rating: 6.3/10
Runtime: 87 mins
Theatrical Release: 00-00-0000
Synopsis: The story of the civil war in Sierra Leone is discussed at length in this thought-provoking documentary about the region. [More]
Genre: Education/General Interest
Director: Philippe Diaz
Reviews
1 - 9 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
There are images in "The Empire in Africa" that I wish I'd never seen, but it's worth enduring them to hear a side of the story that the media and Hollywood overlooked.
12/11/06
Diaz refuses to accept received wisdom about the RUF's savagery, and it clearly took more than one revolutionary movement to reduce Sierra Leone to abject poverty.
12/08/06
That Empire lacks clear-cut heroes and villains is not necessarily a fault, but the movie's muddle too often comes across as an attempt to avoid assigning responsibility where it belongs.
12/08/06
Top Critic
Philippe Diaz's tumultuous documentary is a noble but failed attempt to explicate the tragedy of Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war.
12/07/06
Top Critic
It’s possible that Diaz’s sympathy for the RUF is symptomatic of a lingering tendency on the left to sanctify anything that calls itself a revolutionary front.
12/07/06
Absolutely powerful indictment of imperialist greed in Sierra Leone. Reveals the hypocrisy of "humanitarian" interventions.
12/06/06
Filmmaker Philippe Diaz makes a strong case for blaming the international community in general, and the United Nations in particular, for the needless protraction of a conflict that left 70,000 dead and millions displaced.
01/31/06
Top Critic1 - 9 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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