1. Over 10 million people all over the world are supported by the diamond industry.

2. Approximately $8.4 billion annually in diamonds come from African countries. This equates to approximately 65% of the world’s diamonds.

3. Blood Diamonds are now frequently referred to as Conflict Diamonds.

4. Conflict Diamonds are diamonds extracted often using inhumane processes, and traded illegally to fund conflict in war-torn countries.

5. The use of diamonds for funding these conflicts has been going on since the, but received the most attention during the Sierra Leone conflict in the late 90’s.

6. Conflict Diamonds typically come from Western and Central Africa including: Sierra Leone, Angola, Liberia, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo.

7. Today, Conflict Diamonds still compose 1% of the diamond industry’s inventory.

8. The United Nations approved Kimberley Process Certification System was created in 2000 to ensure the elimination of any new blood diamonds into the market.

The movie is set in the early 1990’s with the Sierra Leonean civil war as the back drop. Leonardo DiCaprio plays an African born Caucasian who was a previous Zimbabwean mercenary, named Danny Archer. Archer has made his living trading diamonds for arms as a participant in a cycle of corruption and violence. The Gladiator’s Djimon Hounsou plays a Mende fisherman who is separated from his family when rebels come to their village, named Solomn Vandy. In turmoil of the rebel’s attack on his village, Vandy’s son, Dia, is selected to join their military, his wife and daughter ushered to a refugee camp, and he escorted to a diamond mine to work as a slave extracting the precious gems. The scene in which the rebels have lined up the villagers and are going through and chopping off the hands of those deemed unfit to work is eerily close to the reality of blood diamonds. The movie is riddled with scenes closely based on the realities of growing up in a conflict region.

While initially Archer and Vandy’s characters appear to be parallel with no reason to ever cross, we soon see that a gorgeous and rare pink diamond discovered by Vandy could be the key to salvation for both of them. As they team up to recover the stone, reunite Vandy’s family, and find away out of the crime circle Archer appears to be trapped in, they find out more about each other then they could’ve imagined.

Overall, the movie was riveting and had as much action as it did drama. Both of the leading men represent their characters convincingly. On a scale of 1 – 10, I would give it a 7.5.

1. The following facts were obtained from diamondfacts.org