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The Empire in Africa

Play trailer Poster for The Empire in Africa 2006 1h 27m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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67% Tomatometer 9 Reviews 80% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
Other nations make attempts to stop the civil war in Sierra Leone.

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The Empire in Africa

Critics Reviews

View All (9) Critics Reviews
Sam Adams Los Angeles Times 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. Rated: 2.5/5 Dec 8, 2006 Full Review Jeannette Catsoulis New York Times Philippe Diaz's tumultuous documentary is a noble but failed attempt to explicate the tragedy of Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war. Rated: 2/5 Dec 7, 2006 Full Review Ella Taylor L.A. Weekly 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. Dec 7, 2006 Full Review Kam Williams AALBC.com Highly recommended as a sobering companion piece to Hollywood's relatively-sanitized version of the same subject-matter in Blood Diamond. Rated: 4/4 Dec 26, 2006 Full Review Rob Thomas Capital Times (Madison, WI) 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. Rated: 3/4 Dec 11, 2006 Full Review Maitland McDonagh TV Guide 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. Rated: 2.5/4 Dec 8, 2006 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (5) audience reviews
Audience Member An apologia mythologizing the f-ktards who chopped off people's arms and hands... disgraceful. Whatever ideology they may have had in the beginning evaporated very quickly. All the rebel leaders wanted in the end was nothing more than to line their own pockets and were willing to do ANYTHING to achieve it. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member This documentary film is extremely disturbing. It contains footage of killed and mutilated corpses, live executions and extreme human suffering. More than ever, it is important to oppose the sale and distribution of weapons and the existence of mercenary armies. Another important lesson from the film is that the United Nations is not necessarily an instrument of peace. The film accuses the United Nations of complicity in fueling the civil war at the behest of the U.K., United States and other developed countries. Finally, we who strive for peace should not necessarily place too much emphasis on electoral democracy. Various factions in Sierra Leone twice agreed to cease-fires and coalition governments which the international community did not recognize because they did not involve an electoral process. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member "blood diamond" is just a beautiful lie. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Audience Member really intense though an important film Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review walter m [font=Century Gothic]"The Empire in Africa" is a heartrending and eye-opening documentary about the civil war in Sierra Leone that lasted from 1991-1999, leaving 70,000 dead and 2 million displaced, 400,000 outside of the country. The civil war started when the Revolutionary United Front(RUF) began an uprising against the corrupt one-party government in an attempt to redistribute some of the vast wealth of the country that was otherwise going to western interests. And it was western influence on the United Nations Security Council which would unnecessarily prolong the conflict, making life on the civilian population that much harder, especially where atrocities were concerned. The documentary featuring interviews with all sides of the conflict is definitely on the side of the RUF. So, it would be disingenuous in any case to suggest that only the government forces were behind the atrocities which multiple shots of amputees and footage of people being shot in the street attest to. In the end, this civil war is another case study where the civilian population matter little in neocolonialist schemes where a watered-down form of democracy is forced down their throats in an attempt to manipulate internal policies in the country. Sound familiar?[/font] Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Empire in Africa

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Other nations make attempts to stop the civil war in Sierra Leone.
Director
Philippe Diaz
Producer
Philippe Diaz
Production Co
Cinema Libre
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 30, 2016
Runtime
1h 27m
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