Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Blood diamond

Did you ever wonder how many people were killed, mutilated, left homeless to get you those precious diamonds - the girls best friends?! Frankly nor did I. But now that I do, I am unlikely to pick one in a long time.

The movie closes in on the diamond trade which is used to generate monies to fund the civil wars in South Africa. Young children too are involved in this trade, the last count was 2,00,000.
Inspite of following the Kimberly process of certification of diamonds, which identify the conflict diamonds from the others, there continues to be a steady flow of these into the markets.

Leo Caprio, a whiteman who is brought up here in this wild continent is drawn to this diamond trade for the monies and thrills involved. Jennifer Connelly plays the role of a journalist, who later in the movie is shown as Leo's love interest. The movie centres around this one character who manages to make a small difference in this big bad world - and that for you my friends is Leo!

The most moving dialogues in the film are the one where one of the homeless old black men exclaims to Caprio after a raid by one of the gangs, bodies strewn around, devastation struck - "look what they are doing for diamonds. Thank God we don't have oil". And the other moving moment was when Caprio in an inebriated state tells journalist/ interest Jennifer Connelly - "God must be mad at us for being so ruthless towards each other. Infact I would think God has left this continent long ago".

Definitely worth watching. An excellent movie which captures the filth behind the solitaires!