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DVD I Am Slave
 Run time: 82 min Rating: 6.7 Genres: Thriller Director: Gabriel Range Writers: Jeremy Brock Stars: Wunmi Mosaku, Isaach De Bankolé, Lubna Azabal |
| Storyline Based on the real-life experiences of Mende Nazer,the story unfolds as twelve-year-old Malia,daughter of champion wrestler Bah,is abducted from her Sudanese village in the Nubar Mountains by pro-government Arab militia and sold into slavery to a woman in Khartoum,who beats her for touching her daughter. After six years she is sent to London,where her name is changed,but her miserable life of servitude continues. Her passport is taken and she is told that her father will die if she goes to the authorities. Fortunately she meets a sympathetic person who seems to offer her the hope of escape and reunion with Bah,back in Sudan. For all the film’s optimism an end title states that there are around 5,000 ‘slave’ workers currently in Britain. Written by don @ minifie-1 |
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| Plot Keywords: slave, village, sudanese, sudan, slavery | |
| Details: Country: UK Release Date: 14 September 2010 (Canada) |
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DVD I Am Slave
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STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
When a young girl, a princess in the African village she comes from, is abducted and sold as a slave at a very young age, she finds the formative years of her adult life spent being exploited by doing hours and hours of work, for little to no pay, finally ending up being used by a foreign diplomat and his wife, with her passport taken from her and a stark warning to remain indoors unless told she may leave. Trapped in this impossibly desperate situation, she may finally be about to find an unexpected means of escape.
Preceded by an eye opening real life expose of modern 'domestic slavery' in Britain, where desperate immigrants are largely exploited by foreign diplomats, this drama from Channel 4 is largely drawn from real life experiences and serves as a stark expose of what's going on under our noses with very little entertainment value. That said, it's a very well made film, perfectly capturing an atmosphere of isolation, tension and hopelessness. Though it's largely silent, the expression of the lead actress captures more than a million words. All together, though, it doesn't quite get under the skin of it's subject quite as much as it could, but it's still quite an effective piece with a lot of food for thought. ***
I am shocked at the comments of demetrius11. Obviously you haven't seen enough slavery movies out there to understand that most of them only have violence in them. We've seen all of that before. I am slave brings another perspective to the issue. And you most certainly do not understand one bit how it is to be separated from your family and on a land where you know nobody and there is no way for you to reach your family and know if they are alive. I would love to see you spend one week in a small room with no food, no light nor human contact. I cannot blame you. Even I do not understand how lucky I am to be living the way I do.
Like other reviewers, I am appalled at what that idiot Demitrius has written. What an insensitive and ignorant person he is!
I am Slave is listed on IMDb as a thriller but, for what my opinion is worth, it should also be listed as a documentary. I acknowledge that depends on how true the story actually is of course – but I am taking into account the notes at the beginning of the closing credits. I don't believe that this sort of thing is exclusive to Sudan either. After all, it happened in huge numbers a couple of centuries ago in West Africa when thousands of black natives were "exported" as slaves to the Americas.
This movie should be compulsory viewing in schools so that our children can learn about the inhumanities that man shows to man. Maybe it will incense many, as it did me, to strive in whatever small way they can to end this sort of thing. We live in relative luxury in western society and many turn a blind eye to atrocities right on our own doorsteps and it isn't good enough!
What's even worse is that the people Malia was enslaved to could just as easily paid her a fair wage and made her part of their family and, at least, given her a reasonable life and some dignity (bearing in mind that they didn't abduct her in the first place – they were "given" her by her evil mistress's evil sister.) Did those loathsome women derive some sort of sadistic pleasure from their treatment of a submissive young woman for whom a simple smile was an effort?
I have rated this film 9 – not for the acting or the cinematography or the directing (all of which are OK by the way) but for the MESSAGE – which is why I believe it should be categorised as a documentary. Certainly not light entertainment but, equally certainly, compulsive viewing!
I can't believe some reviews…
I would love to see that demetrius guy separated from his family, when all his friends will brutally killed, when he can't sure that his family are alive or dead, when he is just 12 years old, and send to some foreign country, lock in the house and do nothing but hard work and with constant insult and abuse, never talk anyone. And then after 6 or 7 seven years of that, come here and review this film again.
This film is not perfect, not show all horrible things happen that poor slaves but good enough to feel guilty for what happened to them.
(Sorry my English is not good)