The Empire in Africa

2006

1h 27m

Documentary

List

67%

Tomatometer

9 Reviews

80%

Audience Score

500+ Ratings

Other nations make attempts to stop the civil war in Sierra Leone.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Audience Member

"blood diamond" is just a beautiful lie.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

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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

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Philippe Diaz

Director

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah

Actor

Foday Sankoh

Actor

Richie Havens

Narrator

Michel Piccoli

Narrator

Mike Lamin

Actor

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Better Late Than Never: The Slamdance ’06 Awards!

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Synopsis

Other nations make attempts to stop the civil war in Sierra Leone.

Director: Philippe Diaz
Production Co: Cinema Libre
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 30, 2016
Runtime: 1h 27m

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