I just saw it this evening......great film

The story takes place in 1999 Sierra Leone, when the country is embroiled in a civil war. In this struggle, it's hard to determine which side is worse: the government or the rebels. As is often the case in this sort of bloodbath, atrocities abound and it's the innocent farmers and villagers caught in between who pay the price.

Diamonds, one of the country's largest exportable commodities, are being smuggled out and purchased on the open market despite a supposed international ban on the purchase of so-called "conflict diamonds" or "blood diamonds." This historical background (which is more complicated as presented in the movie) is accurate, although the three primary characters embroiled in events are fictional.

Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is a loving husband and father who lives a peaceful existence on a farm in an out-of-the-way community in Sierra Leone.

He sends his young son, Dia (Caruso Kuypers), to a school to learn English so the boy will grow up to have a better life. One day, terror comes to Solomon's village when the rebels arrive and kill or capture nearly everyone living there.

Solomon's family is ripped from him and he is sent to work harvesting diamonds. While sifting through sand from a shallow river bottom, he discovers a 100-karat pink diamond, which he initially hides then later buries.

Shortly thereafter, he is captured during a government raid and sent to jail. While there, he encounters South African "soldier of fortune" Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), who makes a deal with Solomon: for the diamond, he will help the man find his wife and children.

To achieve this aim, Archer goes for help to American journalist Maddy Brown (Jennifer Connelly), whose price for aid is a tell-all expose from Archer about how "dirty" diamonds are laundered to appear clean to the world market, and how much culpability the London diamond merchants have.

i Love the Movie
Lenardoo was Great...loved the accent

but very sad tho :(

I absolutely loved it............I cried alot though :(

It's not only great but imo it's a classic movie. I saw it 3 weeks ago, brilliant acting. Tell you something after i was done watching the movie in this particular theater all the people stood up and clapped before leaving. Everyone was in awe and the ending was brilliant.......I simply love this movie, i think the best of the year so far i don't care what anyone else says.

i Love the Movie
Lenardoo was Great...loved the accent

but very sad tho :(

he did a great job 4 sure. I was amazed by that and applauded him in my heart because I couldn't do it in the middle of the film especially that i was in a theater with whole lota a people. :D

The story takes place in 1999 Sierra Leone, when the country is embroiled in a civil war. In this struggle, it's hard to determine which side is worse: the government or the rebels. As is often the case in this sort of bloodbath, atrocities abound and it's the innocent farmers and villagers caught in between who pay the price.

Diamonds, one of the country's largest exportable commodities, are being smuggled out and purchased on the open market despite a supposed international ban on the purchase of so-called "conflict diamonds" or "blood diamonds." This historical background (which is more complicated as presented in the movie) is accurate, although the three primary characters embroiled in events are fictional.

Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is a loving husband and father who lives a peaceful existence on a farm in an out-of-the-way community in Sierra Leone.

He sends his young son, Dia (Caruso Kuypers), to a school to learn English so the boy will grow up to have a better life. One day, terror comes to Solomon's village when the rebels arrive and kill or capture nearly everyone living there.

Solomon's family is ripped from him and he is sent to work harvesting diamonds. While sifting through sand from a shallow river bottom, he discovers a 100-karat pink diamond, which he initially hides then later buries.

Shortly thereafter, he is captured during a government raid and sent to jail. While there, he encounters South African "soldier of fortune" Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), who makes a deal with Solomon: for the diamond, he will help the man find his wife and children.

To achieve this aim, Archer goes for help to American journalist Maddy Brown (Jennifer Connelly), whose price for aid is a tell-all expose from Archer about how "dirty" diamonds are laundered to appear clean to the world market, and how much culpability the London diamond merchants have.

Thanks for the review.
I understand Both men gave great performances

If it were up to me the diamonds would be cut in Africa and then sold to the rest of the world.

It was a sad ending....and in general a sad but truthful portrayal of an African civil war.....Leonrado di Caprio was brilliant......he took on the various African accents quite well....he played the part of a complex character...he was white and grew up in Africa....he fought against apartheid...and was very sypathetic towards the plight of Black Africans..... he was very much aware that whites were responsible for many of the problems the African nations were facing......but there was a scene in the movie where he was himself became the epitomy of the very aparthied mentality he detested by referring to Soloman as his ''boy''........''a kaffer''...and that he was his( solomans) master....this showed that despite his liberal/humanitarian inclination the desease of racial superiority had still affected him....the most sad part of the movie was the training/indoctrination of the child soldiers....this was not sad for the sake of it....it was and is real

KHARTOUM, 2 Feb 2007 (IRIN) - Boys in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region are increasingly at risk of being recruited into armed groups, while sexual violence against girls is unabated, despite growing official awareness, a top United Nations envoy said on Thursday.



Following visits to Darfur and the South Sudanese capital of Juba and meetings with top Sudanese government representatives, Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN Special Representative to the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, told reporters in Khartoum that while Sudanese officials have made promises to reduce threats to children, little progress has been seen on the ground.


"There is recognition in Sudan at the official level of the problems of child recruitment and sexual violence," Coomaraswamy said. "[Sudan] has agreed to frameworks and they have agreed to commitments. However, we are concerned that there's not enough implementation and that the results are not showing on the ground."
Children are being increasingly recruited by both rebel factions and the Sudanese army, she said.

"Independent monitors have pointed out to us through verified data that child recruitment is increasing in Darfur and that all parties to the conflict engage in child recruitment," Coomaraswamy said.

The UN envoy said she was pleased to have secured agreements by rebels and the government to allow UN audits of military encampments to ensure no children are present.

Coomaraswamy said that child recruitment in southern Sudan was on the wane, following the signing in 2005 of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudanese government and former rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) to end 21 years of war.
However, she said programmes aimed at reintegrating former child soldiers into society had faced difficulties.

Thousands of children were recruited into the SPLA during the civil war and some former child soldiers are struggling to readjust to life outside the military.

"We found that reintegration programmes of child soldiers are not working as well as we would like," Coomaraswamy said. "What happens is children are demobilised, but they come back to the armed camps because they feel alienated in their communities."

She also stressed that more needs to be done to end sexual violence against girls in Darfur. "There is recognition of this issue at the national level," she said. "However, the situation on the ground does not seem to have improved. Medical reports show that there are high rates of sexual violence."
The UN envoy called for a more potent security framework to protect women and children.