Black Gold

In the early 1930s, a bitter war rages in Arabia between feuding tribal lords Nessib, Emir of Hobeika (Antonio Banderas) and Amar, Sultan of Salmaah (Mark Strong). After bloody battles, the tribes agree to a truce, the main condition of which is that none of them may ever lay claim to the territory called the Yellow Belt. To secure this pact, the victorious Nessib takes Amar's two sons, Saleeh and Auda, hostage.

Years later, however, it is Nessib who threatens to break the truce. For when a Texan oil prospector shows up at his house offering him lots of money to develop the Yellow Belt, Nessib agrees - a clear violation of the agreement for Amar. When Saleeh (Akin Gazi) is killed while trying to escape and return to his father, all signs point to war again. Now Auda (Tahar Rahim), who was previously married to Nessib's daughter Leyla (Freida Pinto), is to travel to his father as a peace missionary and prevent a war at the last moment. But it's a decision Nessib will come to bitterly regret.

Black Gold is yet another fine example of Jean-Jaques Annaud's mastery of visual storytelling. As a storyteller, on the other hand, he's far less good and unfortunately once again delivers only good average. Somehow the whole thing seems like a light version of Lawrence of Arabia. And that's a real pity, because the story would have had what it takes to raise the standards and entertainment value by the not very subtly presented reference to the current world political situation. As it is, however, the whole thing is a strangely anaemic desert adventure in which even the most strenuous of the actors' performances peter out into dinky extra roles.

So, for instance, Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) is not in a moment more than a neat accessory and Antonio Banderas, who last gave an extremely strong performance in The Skin I Live In, is merely a walking cliché. Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) visibly struggles to deliver a performance strong enough to carry the film through some of its lengths. And Riz Ahmed provides some genuinely very amusing moments as Auda's half-brother Ali. And yet, even the two of them can't keep the film from feeling kind of inconsequential by the end.

Sure, the imagery of the film is wonderful at times and for long stretches the entertainment value is definitely there. But it would have taken more than a few beautiful images and tense moments to make this adaptation of Hans Ruesch's novel The Black Thirst more than just pretty-looking desert battles. With a little more bite, Annaud could have turned the story about the beginning of the power struggle for the black gold in the Middle East into quite a great and, above all, back-stabbing cinematic adventure. So the high ambitions are recognizable, but the end result is rather soporific than really gripping. Therefore: alone for the beautiful pictures there is a just worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp