The Constant Gardener

Review posted on 20 March 2006 by Ben Young, World-wise reviewer

The Constant Gardener was released late in the year of 2005 and the Western film industry congratulated itself on its emerging global social conscience.

The film depicts pharmaceutical companies exploiting Kenyans while wiping out the European sleuths who try to right those wrongs. It is beautifully filmed and acted; but despite its good intentions, it replicates the most awful stereotypical attitudes that condition how the West relates to Africa.

For there are no African characters in the film. Kenyans are relegated to bit parts, all stereotypical, whose only purpose is to suffer or be saved by whites. The one black character, little more than a cypher himself, is Belgian.

There are great struggles going on in Africa: African governments struggle to implement democratic policies in the face of G8 demands; African social movements struggle to shift their governments out of complacency and incompetence; African citizens struggle to survive against all the economic odds. The actors in all these struggles are Africans.

The Constant Gardener unthinkingly repeats the view that Europeans (and those of European descent) are the agents, and Africans the mere subjects, of history.

Still, it is as well to have this prejudice exposed, so that it can be challenged. The Constant Gardener could certainly prompt a lot of interesting discussion, and it's still an enjoyable watch.

Rating: No rating

Review posted on 20 March 2006 by Paul Harper, World-wise reviewer

Taut thriller that reveals a dark underworld where multi-national capital, in cahoots with corrupt government officials in the UK and in Kenya treat impoverished Kenyans as disposable commodities in pursuit of an illusory 'proof' of a drug's safety to maximise corporate profits. The film is stunningly set in location in Kenya.

Rating: 4/5