SYNOPSICS
El cuaderno de Sara (2018) is a Spanish,French,Swahili,English,Italian movie. Norberto López Amado has directed this movie. Belén Rueda,Marian Álvarez,Iván Mendes,Manolo Cardona are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2018. El cuaderno de Sara (2018) is considered one of the best Adventure,Drama,Mystery,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
Laura Alonso is a Spanish lawyer from Madrid who sets off to Democratic Republic of Congo (central Africa) after having seen a photo where Sara, her younger sister, appears alive after two years with few clues about her location. While looking for contacts, Laura realizes that Sara was photographed in the region of Goma, one of the most troubled zones of the country due to local warlords and their conflict over coltan, a much appreciated and expensive mineral. Determined to go until the end despite not knowing the country or the language, Laura contacts Sergio Rojas, a Latin businessman, to get the way to travel to Goma. But after discovering the real interests of Sergio, Laura asks help Sven, Sara's onetime lover, to go Goma. Sven finds Jamir, a young former child soldier who reluctantly accept Laura's offer to help her. Together they both start a journey from Uganda to Goma via Rwanda, across the border from eastern DR Congo. As they travel, Laura's life not only will be in danger ...
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El cuaderno de Sara (2018) Reviews
Manking the believable (and atrocious) unbeliebable and atrocious
This is right down there with other similarly poorly constructed titles. The problems with this film, which in principle could have actually worked had less to do with the plot than the way it was orchestrated. A blond white women in the savage heart of ruthless and bloodthirsty Africa could have worked but would have required a more sophisticated plot development. Here are a few of the points with which I took exception: She would have never stood a chance of avoiding being raped and probably chopped up into even slices as well in reality. Her escapes from the horrors of the local militias are farcical and unrealistic. The introduction of the female cadre of UN Soldiers was laughable at best this was so far-fetched. Probably some feminist fantasy, but it had absolutely nothing to do with reality. While there is nothing wrong with females being soldiers the idea of a contingent of females in the heart of violent Africa on a peace keeping mission beggars the imagination. She was such a dolt who in their right mind extends their forearm to a mamba? Speaking of mambas, while the one that bit her was the less venomous variety, most likely the eastern green mamba. The use of stones is common both in African and Asia. This was a great disappointment because the film concept had great potential..it was just too much of too little to make any impact at all.
Excellent
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
Supporting Cast shines
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.
Even netflix can't escape the european savior complex
El cuaderno de Sara follows the story of a spanish lawyer that tracks down her sister, an aid worker, to a violent zone in the congo. Once the film begins, you are reminded an awful lot of times that africa is a violent and complex place, very different to Madrid. Our main character seems completely incapable of walking the streets without getting lost or fade helplessly into the chaos, finding comfort only in white-abundant places like hotels and bars. I understand that this is the point of the character, she being naive and ignorant, but the movie ends with her being almost as ignorant as the beginning. The movie has an abundance of opportunities to come to a profound realization, the whole arc of her sister revolves around this fact, but evades a closure for easier subjects. Cute selfies with black kids are nonstop, as are many other aid-tourism behaviors, and even when the conflict it depicts is similar to the reality of not just the congo but many mineral -rich places in Africa, they are never tied to existent names or events. Acting is Ok, and some shots are spectacular, but that is a cheap ploy to simply ignore the failure that is the story. If you are really interested in learning about the subject, and in my opinion everyone should, you should watch Beasts of No Nation and The Siege of Jadotville both from Netflix. The later, even when is the account of a white group of soldiers fighting on behalf of the UN in the congo, does more to bring the actual causes and consequences of our thirst for minerals than this movie.
Docu-drama tries to go thriller
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.