Le carnet de Sara

A Spanish woman named Laura: Belen Rueda, travels to Center Africa looking for her beloved and long-time lost younger sister Sara : Marian Alvarez. After learning by a photograph that her sister is at Goma region, she sets out to look for the missing Sara accompanied by an ex-soldier boy called Jamir: Ivan Mendes, who relunctantly accepts to help her. Both of whom begin a risked travel to the darkest heart of Africa with abundant dangers, attacks and assaults from Uganda, via Rwanda, across the frontier from Eastern Democratic Republic Congo until Goma. There rules a ruthless warlord nicknamed the Hawk, El Halcón, who carries out bloody razzias and slaughters.

Brooding and thought-provoking flick concerning interesting themes, such as : recruiting of soldier children, human exploitation by extreme labouring about mineral Coltan, horrible African conditions where life has not value and death shows up in every corner of the way , violent African wars commanded by brutal warlords who cause massacre, destruction and chaos. Cast is pretty well. Belén Rueda gives a fine acting as the valiant Spanish lawyer decided to undertake a perilous mission but her own spirit and mind will take on an ominous reality. Marian Alvarez is the good sister who sacrifices herself for the unfortunate African people. Along with a nice support cast such as : Enrico Lo Verso, Marta Belaustegui, Apali, Ramón Barea, Cardona, Nick Devlin and Iván Mendes as the young boy and ex- soldier child who helps and saves lives.

It contains a colorful and brilliant cinematography by David Omedes who photograps perfectly the lush African jungle. Being filmed on location in Uganda and Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. As well as an emotive and sensitive musical score by Julio de la Rosa who captures the adequate ambient. The motion picture well written by Jorge Guerricaechevarria, Alex de la Iglesia's ordinary writer, was competently directed by Norberto López Amado. He is a good professional, a fine craftsman who has directed a few films as Nos Miran and La Decision de Julia and a lot of TV series such as : El comisario, El internado, Herederos, Plan America, Acusados, 14 Abril la Republica, Tierra de lobos, El Principe, Toledo, Capitan Alatriste, El tiempo entre costuras, El Rey, Mar de plástico, El incidente, La verdad, Secretos de estado, Brigada Costa del Sol, Hernán. Rating 6.5/10. Above average. The yarn will appeal to Belén Rueda fans.

The critics may be right that much of the story is unrealistic, and I agree the protagonist never would have survived any part of the trek she's on. But still it is well acted with some enjoyable supportive actors, especially the actor who plays the woman who saves her life and the young man who plays Jamir-who's actually the best thing about the whole film.

The story had a chance to be enthralling. It missed, but not badly. A story of a disastrous Central African drug/diamond/or in this case minerals human tragedy is compelling on its own. This movie also tries to throw in a sibling re-unification thread, which I found lacking. The story of the sister and her young African guide/translator was the star interaction of the movie. However; as with so many movies, the overuse of dramatic shootings and narrow escapes becomes nearly comical. Our heroine is shot at a thousand times, is surrounded numerous times, and ambushed a few more times for good measure. We even get car chases and plane disasters. It was as if the director wanted to make "James Bond goes to an African civil war." I still liked the movie. The acting was solid and they did capture the feel of living in Africa in the 21st Century.

For someone who has lived in the Congo, this story is as real as it gets. Some reviews find certain events unrealistic and far fetched but they have probably never been in a jungle in Africa

A tale of a Moronic Spanish woman whose idiotic quest to find her less bright sister in the war torn Congo leaves in her wake countless bodies of friends and foes because she has the gray matter of a marsupial and always places herself and others in harms way .. her continuing propensity to make the wrong descision defies credulity.