Blood Diamond
The film Blood Diamond takes us on a trip through the west african outskirts, mainly the surroundings of Sierra Leone during the civil war from 1991 to 2002 whereas the R.U.F (Revolutionary United Front) use 'slaves' to mine rivers for diamonds.
We are introduced to the main characters Danny Archer, a former sergeant for the South African Defence Force, Solomon Vandy, a slave for the warlord Captain Poision and Maddy Bowen, an American journalist.
One day when Solomon Vandy is mining for diamonds, he finds a big pink diamond that has to be kept confidential due to its rarity and value. He hides the diamond between his toes as he proceeds to go to go for a restroom break in order to dig the diamond down somewhere. Captain Poison caught him in the act of digging it down, but the village they are working at gets invaded by government troops. Poison is hit by grenade shrapnel and falls unconscious to the ground as Solomon sprints further away to dig the diamond down, before being captured.
Meanwhile, Danny Archer is caught trying to smuggle Diamonds into Liberia using sheeps, in order to sell the diamonds legally and "conflict free". He is sent to the same jail facility as Poison and Solomon. Poison threatens Solomon inside the jail and sets a bounty hunt after him and the diamond. Danny hears about the trouble and seeks after Solomon once they've been released.
While Danny is at a local bar to retrieve a handgun from his loyal friend working there, he catches an eye for Maddy. They have a talk and he quickly finds out that she is a Journalist and abruptly ends the conversation as he expects she is trying to gather information from him.
When Danny finally gets Solomon to trust him after making the deal that if Danny gets the diamond, he will make sure Solomon is reunited with his family, and especially his son Dia, whom is captured by the R.U.F to be used as a child soldier, they realize that the R.U.F is still operating the village which means Danny has to meet with the government loyalists in order to invade the village again.
Danny uses Maddy, the journalist, as a travel agent across the borders of South Africa. In return for this, she gets to write a touching and fully factual story about blood diamonds.
The diamond is sold, Solomon is reunited with his family and Maddy gets to write their story.


The conflicts raised in this film are Civil War, Child Soldiers, Blood Diamonds and ethics surrounding those.
From watching the film I've learned more about the loyalist government as well as the conflict of blood diamonds being sold in other countries. I believe Van De Kaap is a direct reference to De Beers. I've learned what a blood diamond really is, but most importantly, how Civil War can affect a population to turn into rebels, to take advantage of children and sell diamonds to other countries to finance war.