freddieprinze79
Powerful, tragic, beautiful, and it made me cry. I tell everyone about this movie and they all thank me afterwards
vswine
I rarely cannot finish watching a movie, but finally gave up on this one with just 30 minutes left. The dubbing was dreadful, which had a negative impact on the acting performances, but the characters and narrative lacked depth and appealed to stereotypical typecasting of white males, particularly the lead character Killian, as victims of circumstance rather than perpetrators of evil in the history of colonialism; black women were portrayed as beautiful, oversexed seducers and black men mostly as stupid and violent. Rather than shedding light on the real history of Portuguese occupation of Guinea, it perpetrated stereotypes, including white women craving sex from dangerous, muscled, well-endowed black men. The main reason I watched the movie for as long as I did was the exceptional cinematography, which was breathtaking.
jasminedesdune
This was one of the most beautiful and moving movies that I have seen in my entire life. It was shot and written so well, with wonderful acting that brought depth to the characters and substance to the plot. Though it was almost 3 hours, I could have watched so much more. I enjoyed the journey that I darted on with the characters and everything came full circle and was done so incredibly well. The love shared by the two main characters was so deep and pure that I was moved to tears---sobbing, really---multiple times.But it's more than a beautiful love story, it's life in art. Truly, a work of art. I'm so glad that I chose to watch it, I'm just so moved.
abisio
The tells the story of Kilian (Mario Casas); a young white worker that on 1958 arrives to Equatorial Guinea with his older brother to work (as a white manager) on a cacao plantation; and fell in love with a local native (not acceptable by the natives and due to the political turmoil become something forbidden). In the present time; Kilian's niece decides to visit the place to find out information about her family history; so the tale become structured as a mix of flashbacks.If the intention was criticism on Spanish colonialism; the movie limits the attack to a few bad seeds on both sides and the obvious cruelty (locals were paid but punished like slaves) is mostly diluted. In fact the portrait of the liberated Equatorial Guinea is far more depressing and cruel than the old one. The movie seems to say "you left us and see what you got into".While the technical aspects of the movie are excellent (camera work, FX, action and/or violent scenes, sound effects), the editing somewhat confusing. If you do not pay attention to some names you will get lost in many characters relations.There are also a few unnecessary scenes that make the movie lag.The acting department is reasonable but on the white side; nobody really shines. On the native (black) side, performances are stronger and passionate even when characters do not have a lot of development.As many European productions; there are some violent and plenty of nudity and (moderated) sex scenes. In Spain the movie was consider PG but like most of Europe; but I am pretty sure it will get an R in USA.In brief; it is an interesting (but not perfect ) movie worth a look
AD
