Blood Diamond (film)

Blood Diamond
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Edward Zwick
Produced by	Marshall Herskovitz Graham King Paula Weinstein Edward Zwick
Written by	Charles Leavitt
Starring	Leonardo DiCaprio Jennifer Connelly Djimon Hounsou Michael Sheen Arnold Vosloo
Music by	James Newton Howard
Cinematography	Eduardo Serra
Edited by	Steven Rosenblum
Production company	Bedford Falls Productions Virtual Studios Initial Entertainment Group
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	December 8, 2006 (2006-12-08)
Running time	143 minutes
Country	United States Germany
Language	English Mende Krio Afrikaans
Budget	$101 million
Box office	$171.4 million

Professional ratings
Review scores
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Blood Diamond is a 2006 German-American political war thriller film co-produced and directed by Edward Zwick, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou. The title refers to blood diamonds, which are diamonds mined in war zones and sold to finance conflicts, and thereby profit warlords and diamond companies across the world.

Set during the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1991–2002, the film depicts a country torn apart by the struggle between government loyalists and insurgent forces. It also portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of people's hands to discourage them from voting in upcoming elections.

The film's ending, in which a conference is held concerning blood diamonds, refers to a historic meeting that took place in Kimberley, South Africa in 2000. It led to development of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which sought to certify the origin of rough diamonds in order to curb the trade in conflict diamonds, but has since been mostly abandoned as ineffective.

The film received mixed but generally favorable reviews, with praise directed mainly to the performances of DiCaprio and Hounsou; they were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.

It is 1999 and Sierra Leone is ravaged by major political unrest. Rebel factions such as the Revolutionary United Front frequently terrorize the countryside, intimidating Mende locals and enslaving many to harvest diamonds, which fund their increasingly successful war effort. One such unfortunate local is fisherman Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) from Shenge, who is separated from his family and assigned to a workforce overseen by Captain Poison (David Harewood), a ruthless warlord.