New Darfur Film Knows No Shame

Published November 04, 2009 @ 04:42AM PT

The man "widely considered to be the worst working director today" + Darfur = Disaster.

You don't even need to see the full film to tell -- here's all you need to know: White journalists in a gun battle with the Janjaweed.

Seriously.

If the trailer is any indication, Uwe Boll's new film Darfur is the worst kind of white-man's-burden, heart-of-darkness trash known to cinema -- Eurocentric Africa filmmaking at its most condescending. Starring Billy Zane.

The film repeats a theme commonly seen in movies about African wars: White people in search of adventure stumble into a land of lawlessness and are touched and distraught by the devastation they find. But by bringing his rugged characters into direct confrontation with villainous Janjaweed militia, Boll is truly in a class of his own.

I've often found that most people are unwilling to criticize a movie about genocide, be it documentary or feature film. I was given a funny look when I walked out of Invisibles and said, "That's the most boring movie I've ever seen." The movies are always "moving" and "heartbreaking" because of the gravity of the subject matter, as if basic standards for storytelling (not to mention respect, in Boll's case) are thrown out the window every time someone decides to make a film about human suffering.

Boll takes this unfounded freedom too far. The trailer is embedded past the jump -- judge for yourself.

[Photo of Uwe Boll from Wikimedia Commons.]

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Comments (1)

The actor/journalists look "shocked" that this atrocity has been going on....in 2009. Really?

Apparently there is more to make this one of the most appalling and worst films yet:

-He uses real rape victims to act in rape scenes. Boll says he did that "because that kind of 'honesty' was the only way he could capture how dire the situation is." (Kudos to Cinematical)

-The movie has no script and he wanted his actors to improvise, but then he found out quickly that they had "problems with improvisation".

-He has spelling mistakes in his trailer (existance?)

I really hope people see if for the crap that it is.

Posted by Ilona C. on 11/04/2009 @ 08:45AM PT
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Michelle became involved in the anti-genocide cause at a young age, and has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns, ever since.