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A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

I can see why Africa United would appeal to children, especially those who have never set foot in Africa. But for anyone over the age of 14, or with the slightest experience of the continent being depicted, I would advise them to avoid this cartoon of a film.The acting is forced, rigid, and in many places just irritating. The same can be said for the storyline. Cheap attempts to popularise the characters using witty retorts or stoicism only rendered them devoid of credibility. The characters' perfect diction and rehearsed theatrics killed off any hope of believing in them as people, or issues, or even Africans.The narrative develops by layer upon layer of predictable clichés - warlords, HIV/AIDS, rude immigration officials, and of course football - interspersed with cheesy triumphalism (i.e. kids beating the baddies) that destroyed any sense of realism about the plight of disadvantaged African youths.Picturesque countrysides, attractive smiling faces and brightly coloured markets were aplenty, so at least the camera work brought life to an otherwise moribund story. The only other redeeming features were the soundtrack and its 88 minutes runtime. 'Extraordinary story' this was not.As noted elsewhere, 'One day a filmmaker will just let us be 'people' - not victims, clowns or the underdogs always searching for more than we have'.This was more 'Sentimentalism United' than any story about football or Africa, as it could and should have been. A great opportunity missed.

"Africa United" has two sides.First and foremost,the film is very beautiful, fun, brilliant, heart breaking, full of energy, passion and adventure, the soundtrack is gorgeous! The actors aren't professional but really amazing! There are a lot of heartwarming scenes of kids overcoming hardships. The children have an enormous sense of friendship, solidarity and generosity. They are brave, adventurous and united. Some people say that the story is a bit thin, for kids, but we all are kids in our heart, aren't we? It's a family film, all ages can see it and be entertained! I really enjoyed every minute of this fabulous movie. At the and, you will cry and smile because of Dudu's very poignant death, it's fantastic! The other side is a movie which shows the problems in Africa. I have already been in Africa and the movie shows exactly what people live (AIDS, child soldiers, sex workers, poverty...) It denounces the life of the children who haven't got parents in Rwanda because of the genocide too.Those two sides make the film very interesting and it's really fantastic!

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning This small, independent piece aimed for family viewing is quite ambitious in it's own little way, a familiar tale of underdogs with an impossible dream chasing it no matter what circumstances set against the backdrop of one of Africa's smallest countries. It's certainly a very spirited romp, with enough dash and colour in it to make it stand out, and not afraid to tackle some darker areas while it's at it. Somehow, at just under an hour and a half, it still somehow fails to hold together and really come into one as a story, but you can't fault the good intentions behind it and you could see far worse stuff like it. **

Five youngsters travel across the African continent to reach the opening games of the world cup. Starting in Kigali, Rwanda, talented teenage footballer Fabrice catches the eye of a talent scout who invites him to play at the opening ceremony of the 2010 World Cup. His appointed 'manager' Dudu, played by the hyper Eriya Ndayambaje , hustles him to the nearest bus station and on to the wrong bus. Towing his best friend Beatrice along the three friends decide to walk to the games. If the premise is unbelievable, bear in mind this is a children's / family film and it seems churlish to criticise it too harshly. It throws in a certain amount of realism through entirely location shooting with nice shots of the semi urban landscape of Kigali and a motor park. However this is an Africa which appears slightly too clean for someone whose been there. Where are the piles of plastic rubbish blocking up the open drains? Eriya Ddayanbaje's lead performance of Dudu does begin to grate after a while but works for the target audience. The group of teenagers behind me were giggling away constantly although I felt at times I was watching a safer sex education film, the condom message is so overstated. While well meaning it does continue the idea that everyone in Africa has HIV. This is a serious issue and while HIV affects the lives of many Africans, most people on the continent don't have HIV. Along the journey Dudu and Fabrice meet Foreman George, a former child soldier, a smouldering and moody performance from Yves Dusenge somewhat wasted on this film. No background is furnished, we're simply given this character, taken for granted he's a traumatised kid. No context is given as to how the child soldier phenomenon emerges and its easy for a audience of teenagers to go away from this film imagining that Africa consists of AIDS orphans, child soldiers or teenage sex workers. Without diminishing any of these problems it needs to be remembered the child soldier phenomenon emerged from particular areas of Africa, it isn't and hasn't been continent wide. The conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), largely ignored by the rest of the world, is fuelled by the demand for minerals and the interplay between conflict, child soldiers and global neo liberal capitalism is never alluded to in this film. Maybe thats too much to expect of a children's film but it's frustrating for an audience to bring in the child soldier thing and then not expand it. A similar reluctance takes place to expand the character of Celeste, who when we meet her is a sex worker at a bar on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. This lake borders DRC, again there isn't any context given about the situation here, the complex interplay of colonial histories, exploitation of mineral wealth fuelling conflicts, the ongoing abuses of women such as rape used as a method of control and coercion and so on. Maybe this is too much to ask of a children's film but don't just allude to an issue, give it some proper background. While the film rams home a message that the young people are a team, they all stick together, collaborating for a shared purpose, it ultimately upholds the notion of individualism. Fabrice gets to the World Cup Opening ceremony. His friends conveniently go their own ways. In place of collaborative interdependence, Africa United substitutes neo liberalism, embodied in the spectacle of the world cup, to offer up a facsimile of togetherness. The final shots emphasise Fabrice, close up, walking into the stadium. No mention here of the street traders swept away for the building of the stadium, the homes demolished, the squatters evicted...