The main characters of the movie I chose are Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) and Dia Vandy (Kagiso Kuypers). All this characters are completely fictitious.
Most of the minor characters are based on fact because the movie is based on a true tragedy, but the story of the movie is completely fictitious.
The story takes place in Sierra Leone, 1999. Sierra Leone is a country located in West Africa. The condition of living at that time was really bad because Sierra Leone was facing a Civil war since 1991 to 2002. The reason of the Civil War was to recuperate the control of their country by fighting the government. This country is full of mineral resources like diamonds, but people are very poor and live in bad conditions. People from Sierra Leone lived afraid because of all the extreme violence that they were facing in their country at that time. This people don’t have much food most of them live in small villages far from the cities. As the Country is facing a Civil War this new group called “RUF” (the rebel forces) are fighting against the government. They kill, torture, destroy villages, scare people, take children to teach them how to be bloody-soldiers and men to treat them as slaves. These men taken as salves are obligated to seek for Diamonds so the RUF can change them for weapons to fight the government. Diamonds are smuggled to different parts of the world. This is illegal because of the way they are obtaining the diamonds. In the movie Solomon Vandy a humble fisherman and father of 3 children is taken as a slave and Dia Vandy, his son, to learn how to be a “soldier”. Salomon meets Danny Archer in prison, a weapons smuggler. His only desire is to run away from Africa. When he realizes Salomon big secret about a big pink diamond he found and hid Danny offers him to find his lost family in exchange of the diamond. They are confronted to several attacks between the RUF and the government. Danny met Maddy Bowen a journalist that wants to prove the smuggle of diamonds. Danny has evidence and all she needs that’s why she helps Salomon to find his family. Some lucky families were put in refugee camps. At this point the rebel force has the power over every citizen. All the background, setting, time, everything in the movie is based on facts of the African Civil War. The story is not true but the action and what is really happening in the movie is what happened in the civil war 1992-2002.
2. I like this movie I think is very interesting and it did help me to understand everything that was going on in Africa, The Civil War and the real reason that makes the diamonds illegal. Diamonds become illegal in Africa when people are forced or trat as slaves to find them. The RUF have slaves that make this hard works and are treated as slaves, they are prisoners. Sierra Leone is a very poor country so people don’t have money the RUF