In this filmed version of Flemish author Jef Gheeraerts' novel, Robert 'Robbe' Parain, an arrogant Antwerp police detective who operates at the limits of illegality and is in personal debt, tenaciously traces but also gets personally entangled in the dark, ruthless, criminal sides of the publicly so glamorous trade in diamonds, notably in his native Antwerp, Hong Kong, Brussels and Congo.
Chantal Vandevijver
The series spans 1 season with 6 episodes in total (avg. 6 per season).
Each episode runs approximately 50 minutes.
Originally aired on VTM.
1997
Guy Moeyaert is a well-meaning colonial official in a jungle district of the Belgian Congo in the last years of white colonial rule, after the Second World War, a paternalistic system where the state, unable to be properly present all over the vast, sparsely populated country, collaborates systematically with the Roman Catholic missions -in his post, father Alexis- and private enterprise, in case mainly the mining company -locally represented by engineer Lenaers- which also helps out with money and labor for such public tasks as road building. Even his grip on the natives is weak, as they live under hereditary tribal leaders, which must take from its people what they are legally obliged to deliver to the state in taxes and labor; coercion is done by force, including whipping on the bare buttocks, which Guy hates. Guy also starts a love affair with Hélène Vermarcke, who gets estranged from her husband Luk (the three were already friends in Belgium) as he devotes all his efforts the their plantation, leaving her alone with the native staff and their son, or is it Guy's? The adultery makes his position in the white community far weaker then is compatible with his position of theoretical authority without sufficient independent means. He also depends heavily on his educated black clerk Gabriel Ndazaru and ambitious white deputy Arthur. It all gets worse for everybody as the call for 'dipenda', black independence as in Ghana, gets stronger, in time even accepted 'in principle' by the Belgian government which plans a gradual transition which the idealist Guy supports but all other whites oppose, while the natives have neither patience nor insight and start attacking every symbol of the old regime, regardless of its objective value, and soon white people and 'collaborators' too- it gets physically dangerous, but Guy won't budge or flee...
2016
A diamond dealer navigates the culturally diverse and treacherous world of the diamond business.
2019
A woman's search to uncover the mystery of the disappearance of her husband leads her to the Congo, where she's forced to seek the truth about what happened to the man she loved.
2021
Hybrid docuseries offering an expansive exploration of the exploitative and genocidal aspects of European colonialism, from America to Africa, and its impact on society today.
2018
A look into the Belgian colonisation of Congo through interviews of both colonials as Congolese people that lived it.
2014
The Congo: more powerful and dangerous than any other river, yet a sanctuary and home for some of the most wonderful creatures on our Earth.
2024
On his toughest journeys yet, Simon Reeve travels through some of the most remote landscapes on Earth in search of the people and the wildlife of the planet’s greatest wildernesses.
2024
Exploring the remote rainforests of the Congo and meeting the tribes that live there. Ben Fogle experiences the vibrant culture that makes the country the 'beating heart of Africa'. Ben arrives in the capital Brazzaville where he prepares for a two-day journey into the wilderness to visit one of the longest-surviving cultures in the world, the Mbendjele BaYaka tribe living deep in the jungle in traditional huts made from leaves
2011
We have been colonised by the machines we have built. Although we don't realise it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers.
Average
4 votes
Diamant
Ended
No
Nederlands
8/31/1997
10/5/1997
