Out of Africa: The Constant Gardener
Certificate: 15
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Africa is not a favourite topic for Hollywood. AIDS, war and poverty tend not to go down well at the box office. Besides there's not much funding from the continent itself and locations are often hard to reach. So it's up to the former colonial countries to focus attention on Africa. Unfortunately these have tended to pander to the worst type of colonial glorification. Think of Zulu with Michael Caine hamming it up against the hordes of 'uncivilized' Zulu tribesmen, never mind the fact that the British were invading the Zulu homeland, the audience cheers on the Brits. Or take The Wild Geese in this charming adventure Roger Moore and a group of British mercenaries shooting up the population an unnamed African state.
The Constant Gardner comes as a refreshing change. Based on a novel by John Le Carré, the author of the Cold War spy thrillers Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Carré has turned into a harsh critic of British foreign policy in recent years, particularly of the Iraq war. He uses The Constant Gardener as a platform to berate British foreign policy in Iraq, the diplomatic corps, African politicians and multinational corporations. The story follows the relationship between a British diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) and his wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz). Quayle is posted to Kenya and is joined, at her insistence, by Tessa. She is an idealist and troughs herself into charity work for the inhabitants of Nairobi's sprawling slums. After a trip to the north of the country Tess and a doctor friend Joshua Ngaba (John Sibi-Okumu) are found murdered. Quayle slowly unravels the reasons why his wife was murdered and finds a new respect for her. Directed by Brazillian Fernando Meirelles, whose previous work includes the academy award winning City of God, the film is interestingly constructed and engagingly acted. Although the heroes (and villans) are Western, The Constant Gardener is one of the most balanced cinematic treatments of Africa for many years.
See it.