Post Description

Director : David Attwood

Release Date : 29/03/2010 ep01 30/03/2010 ep2

Genre : Drama

Cast : , Naomie Harris as Alice Omuka, Jodhi May as Claire Unwin, David Oyelowo as Keme Tobodo, Nyasha Hatendi as Noel Ijeoma, Chiké Okonkwo as Ebi, Osi Okerafor as Lucky, Chinwe Odukwe as Voice Actor


Plot : In this heavyweight two-parter, Guy Hibbert, the award-winning writer of last year's Five Minutes of Heaven, which starred James Nesbit and Liam Neeson, turns his attention to the complex web of violence and corruption at the heart of the oil industry in Nigeria. 

The drama started with the kidnapping of a British engineer, Mark Unwin (Tom Fairfoot), by militants opposed to the foreign exploitation of Nigeria's resources. After negotiations for his release, Alice Omuka (Naomie Harris), an irritating PR princess for a major oil company, decided it'd be a great publicity coup to bring his wife Sarah (Jodhi May) to the handover and film the couple's reunion. 

Uh-oh. Unfortunately, Alice's plan came off the rails slightly when they got to the rendezvous point and found that Mark, along with two other white hostages, had been shot dead. Jodhi May gave an astonishingly powerful performance as the grief-stricken Sarah, but unfortunately it became so bruising and relentless that it was hard to focus on the political thriller that was starting to bubble up underneath. 

The confused and guilt-ridden Alice was subsequently tipped off by a journalist that the hostages had been alive when the militants released them, and when Claire found a deleted video on Mark's laptop suggesting he'd been involved in some shadowy shenanigans, we started to head into paranoid conspiracy territory similar to earlier BBC classics Heart of Darkness and State of Play. 

The series was filmed in South Africa, but it evokes vividly the chaotic 'wild west' nature of life in Port Harcourt, the city on the Niger Delta where the oil industry is based. It also effectively highlighted the enormous gap in Nigeria between the haves and the have-nots, as a never-ending cycle of corruption concentrates the country's vast potential wealth in the hands of an elite. 

However, I don't know if viewers will necessarily want to sit through three hours of gruelling drama to reach the not-very-surprising conclusion that people in developing countries generally get stitched up by their governments and the multinational corporations they get into bed with. This is excellently produced high-quality drama, but I've a feeling it may be just too rich a dish for most viewers. 

Run Time : 180 min (2 episodes)


Audio: 128kbit       
As. Ratio : 16:9     
Res.      : 624x352 
 

Ref: 3103201025 of Bloed en olie ep01 en ep02
in a.b.divx en a.b.xxibite
size: 1.49GB