Africa United

[Beate]

How long is the film then?

[weirdfilms33]

How long is the film then?

Beate, do you ever check IMDB?

It's 88 minutes

[Beate]

Yes all the time but I felt lazy tonight!

[weirdfilms33]

Yes all the time but I felt lazy tonight!

Haha, fair enough. IMDB is basically my life

[Ms Thrifty]

When I last checked the run time wasn't on IMDB so it must since have been added; instead, I obtained it from the LFF brochure so at present that might be a useful alternative source of information missing from IMDB.

[elski]

I went hoping there wouldn't be too much football and then spent the whole wishing there were some! It's like a really clunky after school special kids TV show, 's-club africa' or something, not funny enough to be comedy and not serious enough to be gritty yet at the same time covers some incredibly serious topics which makes it a bit strange. If I'd have been at a cinema closer to home and not pa*d transport to get there I would have walked out, I was that bored.

for the bright colours and scenery 4/10

[mattymc13]

I'll just copy over what I wrote about it on my Flixster page:

It's as feel-good as feel-good movies get, and it looks absolutely fantastic. It will likely get rave reviews, but not from me. It didn't keep me completely interested, and I can't imagine a trek across half of Africa would be quite this dull. On two occasions they encounter wild cats, the first a black panther, the second a lion. But nothing happens. At times it feels more like a documentary on the beauty of Africa, showing big landscape shots in the style of Attenborough's Planet Earth. Yes, the premise is fascinating, but the execution isn't quite so.

[Ms Thrifty]

Article from last Saturday's Guardian about the director and her Rwandan connection:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/o ... r-paterson

[Preston1990]

Overall I was quite disappointed with this film, primarily for the reasons already mentioned by others on this forum.

It was a curious and uneasy mix of an HIV health issue information film running alongside the mainstream kids on a long journey story. There were some really good performances from the cast and some interesting and important elements touched upon in the mix (like the former child soldier issue and the arranged marriages of young girls).

But as a coherent and entertaining film in the main it failed to hit the spot for me. Frankly, for a journey that covered basically most of the length of Africa it felt too dull and uneventful. When the kids arrived at their destination and the film ended I just thought "Is that it?".

6 out of 10.

[Preston1990]

I've only now read the article written by the film's director, that Ms Thrifty linked to.

Knowing a little more about the background to the film greatly aids my understanding of it. Given the history of that troubled area, and the difficulties it still faces, it suddenly becomes obvious why the film is like it is.