Adieu Afrique

Poachers mindlessly killing game for fun and profit. Hands being chopped off a la Colonial Congo. Arabs being massacred on mass during the Zanzibar revolution. Simba rebels killing and being executed in return. White mercenaries fighting in the Congo.

All of these things, and many more, are followed by this classic Mondo film. It's flawed (its narrative is shamelessly colonialist, avoiding all the atrocities that the colonizers committed and the actual causes for nationalism that led to these tragedies), but this is Heart of Darkness for the film generation: It is a glimpse into the worst that Africa has to offer, and nobody comes out looking good.

Highly recommended, if you got the stomach to watch some of the most senseless butchery ever recorded on film. If only these guys had done Vietnam.

Both terrifying and fascinating are the words that sprang up in my mind as I was watching the movie.

It's fascinating that the record of atrocities made to humans and animals in Africa existed already in the sixties. Just as those atrocities were happening. Today, fifty years later, we are only made aware post festum that something like that was happening and happened, but it is like some distant point in the past. If you think Iraq war in the nineties was the first 'live' feed of (war) terror from the other side of the world, think again. And try to find this movie. The movie maybe is not 'live' feed in the most rigid sense of the word, but it is a contemporary document of something that shouldn't have happened. And, what is worse, is still happening today.

And terrifying? Well, you just have to see the movie.

Africa Addio, is an Italian film with English subtitles. The film is a documentary about Africa, including scenes of animals being poached, a civil war and a revolution and a bunch of tribes being slaughtered. The film came out in Italy in 1966 and then came to North America in 1970 entitled Africa: Blood And Guts, and had 37 minutes cut from it's running time. Winner of The David Award for Best Production at The David Di Donatello Awards. The version I saw of the film was the 139 minute director's cut. The film is a very good looking film with great cinematography and production design. The film is also very interesting and is very powerful and disturbing with some of the images it shows us. After awhile the film started to feel long though and felt like it dragged on a little bit too much the last half hour or so. Some parts were also a little confusing but generally this is an entertaining, interesting and powerful film that is just as shocking now as it was in the 60's.

This is the ONLY example of which I'm aware where the complete loss of a film is ignored by all media and critics. I saw this documentary on its original release in, I believe, 1967. It was very disturbing because of the miles of animal bones and bodies it displayed. It squarely placed the blame on both the whites AND the black native inhabitants. And the latter is, imho, the reason this film has disappeared. You can't find the lousiest, most edited version, let alone the original. And this movie was made by Academy Award winners for an earlier foreign film, so it's not like it was just a throwaway cheepie.

Look, I get it. I know this film is-if not outright racist-from a decidedly colonial point of view. I know that shots in it are inaccurate or staged. I know that ten minutes of Africa Addio consists of women in bikinis bouncing on trampolines in slow motion. I get it.

But there are so many scenes from this film that stick with me.

In one, two jeeps race through the Savana with a rope tied between them. They are using the rope to mow down a heard of galloping Zebra. It is shocking, even in the age of Youtube. And yet, at the same time, it is beautifully filmed. It is horrible and yet you can't stop watching.

Honestly, Mondo Cane 1+2 along with Africa Addio have some of the best cinematography of the 1960s. The colors, framing, and composition is sublime. And I love how they play around various effects such as zooms and fisheye lenses. Many shots are handheld, which gives them an intimacy that feels very modern. Almost all Mondo spin offs got this wrong. They thought they could just toss together some uninspired shots of sex and gore. Africa Addio has sex and gore, but it makes its sex and gore into art.

Another scene in the film shows the aftermath of what is today known as the Zanzibar Revolution. From a helicopter, we see a compound full of people waving for help. The next day, we return. Now the compound is full of bodies. I've seen the aftermath of genocides in the news but this felt different. The before and after. The non-BBC style narration. It felt more authentic in some strange way. It's crazy that these shots are some of the only photographic evidence of the genocide. It's crazy that such an event was only captured by a Mondo film.

Africa Addio is undoubtably an achievement. This film managed to capture select glimpses of a world that no longer exists. And it did so in a beautiful way. Today we can overlook much of what was once considered most shocking in the film and see it as a unique work of art.

And yet, it must be said that Africa Addio is also a dangerous film. I know that the film's narrative, combined with its many powerful visual, could easily reenforce racist views. The film is dangerous if for no other reason than there's far, far more to Africa than what it presents. For this reason, I personally do not think of it as a documentary even though it consists of real footage.

I can only recommend Africa Addio to film buffs. For would be connoisseurs of exploration like myself, it is a true gem. If however you are just searching for a fun watch-or worse, looking for a documentary-look elsewhere.