Africa United review

Three Rwandan kids embark on an adventure to get to the World Cup in South Africa...

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There’s more than a whiff of Slumdog in this rather calculated tale of three Rwandan kids hitching to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, a journey which sees a Congolese child soldier and a teenage prostitute join their ranks, and a couple of gun-toting thugs dog their heels.

Throw in the safari wildlife, AIDS and some bold animated sequences, and you have a weirdly unwieldy concoction that’s too dark for kids and too naive for adults.

Still, director Debs Gardner-Paterson gets disarming performances from her young leads and the soundtrack is terrific.

Freelance Writer

Neil Smith is a freelance film critic who has written for several publications, including Total Film. His bylines can be found at the BBC, Film 4 Independent, Uncut Magazine, SFX, Heat Magazine, Popcorn, and more.