It has been a good week for films. I would not have bothered with Africa United had I not heard the praise from the good doctor. Mark Kermode and his buddy, Simon Mayo last Friday. It is an odd film which as one reviewer suggests is a combination of a United Nations education film about the importance of condoms in the fight against the spread of AIDS, a GCE geographical guide to the countries of black Africa, a protests against the use of young boys in domestic warfare, and against the exploitation of young women as child brides and prostitutes, together with an appeal for a programme of education for all young people.
A streetwise orphan Rwandan boy small in stature called Dudu played by Eriva Ndavambje and his sister Beatrice (Sanyu Joanita Kintu) scrape a living, it is not clear how, while the brother dreams of the world Cup, and acts as unpaid manager fro a young man, Fabrice(Roger Nsenglyumva. with talented ball skills but whose middle class parents want him to concentrate on his education and turning out like brother who is a doctor in the United States.
Om an occasion when Fabrice has been breaking a record of the number of ball controls before the ball touches the ground an agent fo the creation fo a skills team to perform at the world cup invites the young man “and his manager” to attend an audition at the national stadium in the Rwandan capital Kigali and gives them the fare. In Europe there would have been contact with parents but this is Africa. They get on the wrong bus heading for a city with a similar name but over the border in a neighbouring country of the Congo to the West. Having got on the bus without tickets, Dudu assume that the stop is for a ticket check not appreciating it is a passport documents control point. Thus the trio find themselves without papers and in the wrong place and are quickly are placed in a refugee camp having encountered a teen soldier Foreman George( Yves Dusenge) who persuades the trio to run off with him when some men, he alleges will press gang fit young men into the rebel army, bribe their way into thee camp at night. In fact they are after him, because he has run off with the General’s money. They escape the chase this time and use the money to cross a lake in small boat which they buy. They arrive at a white tourist hotel where they encounter Celeste (Sherie Silver) who later reveals she is the daughter of a King who fell on hard times and who attempted to sell her a young bridge with six cows to someone she did not wish to marry and eventually became a sex slave girl for the hotel manager/owner.. Typically from their naivety as well as thin story telling they reveal their wealth which is quickly removed but they manage to escape again but encounter the General’s men again and where we learn that one fo these in in fact the older brother of Foreman George. They hand over the money in exchange for their lives, although Dudu later reveals he has kept some back.
This they use to gain transport by boat. There are three mini adventure before they reach the South African Border. They are chased by young teenage thugs in one community and Fabrice is forced to give up his boots in exchange for the return oft he case which contains their remaining money. Crossing over the next border Dudu thinks he had done a great exchange rate deal only to find the new money is worthless because the currencies has been changed. They then go to an Aids testing centre when in exchange for the test there is a monetary payment. Celeste is understandably concerned about her condition but all given the all clear and everything appears set fair for the rest of the journey. Dudu then becomes ill and is taken to the nearest hospital a charitable undertaking run by a order of Nuns who also provide a free school. It is revealed that he has Aids presumably the disease which killed his parents and he is told to wait for three days before required medication arrives, but this will mean they will not arrive in time for Fabrice to arrive and stake his claim for a place in the World Cup ceremony. They elect to go off, that is everyone except Beatrice who with consent of her brother, stays to take up a place offered to her at the school and follow her dream of an education and becoming a doctor to cure disease. The four adventurers reach the border in time with Dudu increasingly ill and being carried by the former boy soldier who and confronted his past and thrown him pistol away.
They are detected as they attempt to cross the border without paper and with little money and the story of why they have come is not believed until Fabrice demonstrate his kills and contact is made with the stadium. They arrive amid the excitement and traffic chaos of the build to the World Cup and Fabrice is allowed to participate despite lack fo rehearsal .
Throughout the 3000 African tour Dudu tells them imaginative stories in which they all have roles and these are shown in as mini animations. The film has been given a 12 certificate which meant there were several groups of unaccompanied 12 to 15 year olds in the audience include one trio of barely looking 12 year olds sitting in front form whose behaviour I anticipated a noisy interventions. The film opens with Dudu explaining how to make a football from a condom. It first blown up into a ball, then placed in a plastic bag and then tired around with string to give it strength. There was no giggling or anticipated sniggers when the term sex worker was used in relation to Celeste. There could have been parental decision taking involved, responsible parents or teachers encouraging responsible secondary school age children. I was remind of watch the first Lord of the Rings film on a Saturday night in a packed auditorium filled noisy young people. I prepared myself for the worse, but you could not hear the proverbial pin drop throughout the three hour epic.
Brothers at War is also an odd film, set at the end fo World War Two it appears to have been sponsored by the Masons’ to indicate the part they have played in promoting good behaviour in wars whatever side they are on. In this film the story is more substantial A British Officer, played by Hugh Daly is attached to the Russian Army as an Observer as they enter Germany from the Eastern front and head quickly for Berlin. The Russians are about to execute the Polish Government in exile before occupying the country as a satellite communist state, a factually true event, and their attempt to keep the British Officer occupied while this happens fails and escaping from he local headquarters where he is supposed to be entertained he see the event, but is captured and held to be taken to Moscow where he encounters another prisoner, a rebellious German officer, a Mason who has been under threat because Mason are among the many groups who ere rounded up by the Gestapo and sent to the concentration camps if not summarily executed.
The unlikely pairing escape and then rescue an attractive Polish girl who has been used by German and Russians in order to survive as she is about to be raped by a group of drunken soldiers. The trio also go on the road encountering wounded German soldiers without medication and who will be killed by the advancing Russians and the Gestapo who order the men to continue fighting or be shot as deserters. They eventually make the allied lines, the Americans, where the British Officer is short by one the Russian officer who undertook the massacre under orders to prevent the plan to occupy the whole of Berlin and Poland from being disclosed. The German Officer, having discovered that he and the British officers are Masons, manages to convince the USA/British army authorities of the authenticity of the information of the massacre and the Russian intentions. The authorities however decide to suppress the information from their respective governments on the basis that having gone to war following war with Germany because of the treaty with Poland, and with the war with Japan continuing, there was no enthusiasm for War with Russia. A depressing tale of the reality of war and international relations but with a common link with Africa United in that both are about a disparate group of individuals bonding in common cause, developing a loyalty to each other cutting cross everything which divides and separates.
I will write separately about the Fugitive Kind with Marlon Brando, Fort Worth with Garry Cooper and James Cagney in Frisco Kid together with half a dozen James Bond Films.
A streetwise orphan Rwandan boy small in stature called Dudu played by Eriva Ndavambje and his sister Beatrice (Sanyu Joanita Kintu) scrape a living, it is not clear how, while the brother dreams of the world Cup, and acts as unpaid manager fro a young man, Fabrice(Roger Nsenglyumva. with talented ball skills but whose middle class parents want him to concentrate on his education and turning out like brother who is a doctor in the United States.
Om an occasion when Fabrice has been breaking a record of the number of ball controls before the ball touches the ground an agent fo the creation fo a skills team to perform at the world cup invites the young man “and his manager” to attend an audition at the national stadium in the Rwandan capital Kigali and gives them the fare. In Europe there would have been contact with parents but this is Africa. They get on the wrong bus heading for a city with a similar name but over the border in a neighbouring country of the Congo to the West. Having got on the bus without tickets, Dudu assume that the stop is for a ticket check not appreciating it is a passport documents control point. Thus the trio find themselves without papers and in the wrong place and are quickly are placed in a refugee camp having encountered a teen soldier Foreman George( Yves Dusenge) who persuades the trio to run off with him when some men, he alleges will press gang fit young men into the rebel army, bribe their way into thee camp at night. In fact they are after him, because he has run off with the General’s money. They escape the chase this time and use the money to cross a lake in small boat which they buy. They arrive at a white tourist hotel where they encounter Celeste (Sherie Silver) who later reveals she is the daughter of a King who fell on hard times and who attempted to sell her a young bridge with six cows to someone she did not wish to marry and eventually became a sex slave girl for the hotel manager/owner.. Typically from their naivety as well as thin story telling they reveal their wealth which is quickly removed but they manage to escape again but encounter the General’s men again and where we learn that one fo these in in fact the older brother of Foreman George. They hand over the money in exchange for their lives, although Dudu later reveals he has kept some back.
This they use to gain transport by boat. There are three mini adventure before they reach the South African Border. They are chased by young teenage thugs in one community and Fabrice is forced to give up his boots in exchange for the return oft he case which contains their remaining money. Crossing over the next border Dudu thinks he had done a great exchange rate deal only to find the new money is worthless because the currencies has been changed. They then go to an Aids testing centre when in exchange for the test there is a monetary payment. Celeste is understandably concerned about her condition but all given the all clear and everything appears set fair for the rest of the journey. Dudu then becomes ill and is taken to the nearest hospital a charitable undertaking run by a order of Nuns who also provide a free school. It is revealed that he has Aids presumably the disease which killed his parents and he is told to wait for three days before required medication arrives, but this will mean they will not arrive in time for Fabrice to arrive and stake his claim for a place in the World Cup ceremony. They elect to go off, that is everyone except Beatrice who with consent of her brother, stays to take up a place offered to her at the school and follow her dream of an education and becoming a doctor to cure disease. The four adventurers reach the border in time with Dudu increasingly ill and being carried by the former boy soldier who and confronted his past and thrown him pistol away.
They are detected as they attempt to cross the border without paper and with little money and the story of why they have come is not believed until Fabrice demonstrate his kills and contact is made with the stadium. They arrive amid the excitement and traffic chaos of the build to the World Cup and Fabrice is allowed to participate despite lack fo rehearsal .
Throughout the 3000 African tour Dudu tells them imaginative stories in which they all have roles and these are shown in as mini animations. The film has been given a 12 certificate which meant there were several groups of unaccompanied 12 to 15 year olds in the audience include one trio of barely looking 12 year olds sitting in front form whose behaviour I anticipated a noisy interventions. The film opens with Dudu explaining how to make a football from a condom. It first blown up into a ball, then placed in a plastic bag and then tired around with string to give it strength. There was no giggling or anticipated sniggers when the term sex worker was used in relation to Celeste. There could have been parental decision taking involved, responsible parents or teachers encouraging responsible secondary school age children. I was remind of watch the first Lord of the Rings film on a Saturday night in a packed auditorium filled noisy young people. I prepared myself for the worse, but you could not hear the proverbial pin drop throughout the three hour epic.
Brothers at War is also an odd film, set at the end fo World War Two it appears to have been sponsored by the Masons’ to indicate the part they have played in promoting good behaviour in wars whatever side they are on. In this film the story is more substantial A British Officer, played by Hugh Daly is attached to the Russian Army as an Observer as they enter Germany from the Eastern front and head quickly for Berlin. The Russians are about to execute the Polish Government in exile before occupying the country as a satellite communist state, a factually true event, and their attempt to keep the British Officer occupied while this happens fails and escaping from he local headquarters where he is supposed to be entertained he see the event, but is captured and held to be taken to Moscow where he encounters another prisoner, a rebellious German officer, a Mason who has been under threat because Mason are among the many groups who ere rounded up by the Gestapo and sent to the concentration camps if not summarily executed.
The unlikely pairing escape and then rescue an attractive Polish girl who has been used by German and Russians in order to survive as she is about to be raped by a group of drunken soldiers. The trio also go on the road encountering wounded German soldiers without medication and who will be killed by the advancing Russians and the Gestapo who order the men to continue fighting or be shot as deserters. They eventually make the allied lines, the Americans, where the British Officer is short by one the Russian officer who undertook the massacre under orders to prevent the plan to occupy the whole of Berlin and Poland from being disclosed. The German Officer, having discovered that he and the British officers are Masons, manages to convince the USA/British army authorities of the authenticity of the information of the massacre and the Russian intentions. The authorities however decide to suppress the information from their respective governments on the basis that having gone to war following war with Germany because of the treaty with Poland, and with the war with Japan continuing, there was no enthusiasm for War with Russia. A depressing tale of the reality of war and international relations but with a common link with Africa United in that both are about a disparate group of individuals bonding in common cause, developing a loyalty to each other cutting cross everything which divides and separates.
I will write separately about the Fugitive Kind with Marlon Brando, Fort Worth with Garry Cooper and James Cagney in Frisco Kid together with half a dozen James Bond Films.
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