Film Review: We Come as Friends


We Come As Friends

BBC WORLDWIDE

Halfway through director Hubert Sauper’s latest doc, we meet a woman waiting to vote for South Sudanese independence. “Bye-bye slavery, and welcome to the new state!” she says. But Sauper travels the land in a tiny self-built plane to expose neocolonialism’s stubborn stranglehold. In intimate, surreal scenes, he introduces us to Chinese oil workers, a British land mine detonator, drunk UN peacemakers, Texan missionaries, and Western businessmen who have no qualms getting rich off a dirt-poor country. The strongest moments belong to the locals trying to make sense of the incursion. One recalls how Europeans first colonized Africa. “After that they went high into space and took the moon!” he says. “Did you know that the moon belongs to the white man?”

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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