seven out of ten
This movie is about responsibility. About thinking about how you might contribute to the violence and bloodshed overseas. I went to Whole Foods a few weeks ago with Huda and she pointed out a cocoa product that was sold via fair trade. I didn't even know what that meant. It meant that it was a product that was made in such a way that the people who made it earned enough to live on. So that means, that the ones without this label are not sold in the fair trade market. That means they can't live off the work they do. Soy farming in Brazil causes murder and devastation and we unknowingly sip our soy lattes unknowingly contributing to the death toll. I say this to say that we contribute a lot to the harm in the world without ever knowing it.
If you watch blood diamond and then research the facts you will likely never buy another diamond ever again. The movie explores two characters, one a South African diamond smuggler and the other a resident of Sierra Leon whose world is shattered when his village is destroyed, his son is taken as a child soldier and his wife and daughters are shuttled off to refugee camps from which they cannot escape. The movie follows the villagers attempt to get his family back, and the smugglers attempt to get one of the most priceless diamonds ever discovered. Both are in their separate goals together to the end. Its one of those important movies like Hotel Rwanda that grabs us by the back of hair and yanks us to see the reality that our counterparts exist in and that though we may think we don't contribute to the devastation overseas, we unknowingly do.
