Review

Title: Heart of Africa
Screen Play: Margaret Blair Young, Tshoper Kabambi
Director:  Tshoper Kabambi
Producers: Margaret Blair Young, Bruce Young, Tshoper Kabambi, Ephraim Faith Buyikana, Deborah Basa
Studio: Excel Entertainment Group
Distribution: Purdie Distribution in association with Bimpa Production and Congo Rising
Genre:  Drama
Year of Publication: 2020
Length: 94 minutes
Format: DVD, Blu Ray
In Lingali, subtitles in English, Spanish, French
Price:  $14.98

Reviewed by Sherry Ann Miller for the Association for Mormon Letters

I must admit, the attraction of the cover of Heart of Africa caught my attention, giving me a false sense of expectation. The cover led me to believe the film was about proselytizing missionaries, one black, one white, sent to the Heart of Africa to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But, no. Two service missionaries are sent to help build a new orphanage for children. Jason Martin, the white missionary, is hated by the blacks of the Congo due to the heinous and depraved injustices heaped upon them by white men in earlier generations. Gabriel Ngandu, a Congolese missionary, seems to hate everyone, including himself, and the film centers around Gabriel and his struggle in dealing with the reality of his revolutionary past.

There are three redeeming qualities in Heart of Africa that have lifted it up a notch in my opinion, hence this Spoiler Alert:

1. The two main characters (Gabriel and Martin) finally overlook each other’s faults and come together in unity.
2. The hospital scene, and the blessing given, was very moving and brought me to tears.
3. When Gabriel brings his brother, Pierre, and the mission president home with him in the last part of the film, I wanted to cheer. Literally cheer.

The main theme in Heart of Africa seems to be that returning evil for evil only brings rage and a type of destruction that leads to more rage; while accepting that God has a better way brings a peace that replaces anger. The entire film teaches that if we can’t forgive one another, we have no hope.

I feel that there are some negatives that must also be pointed out:

First, perhaps 70% of the film is in subtitles. So, while the characters are speaking another language, we must read what they are saying in English, which I found tedious.

Second, the script is poorly written, much of it is done in flashbacks, and there are too many scene changes where the dialogue did not fit with the scene. The storyline jumped around disjointedly.

Third, the film never truly explained why Martin annoyed Gabriel so deeply.

Fourth, the two missionaries’ relationship was not explored enough to fully explain their being out of sync with each other.

Fifth, the cinematography was extremely poor, given what the industry normally has to offer. I expected beautiful vistas, yet even the poverty conditions could have been made so much more dramatic with a little better direction and film quality. It felt many times like someone was filming the scenes with their cellphone, I found this  annoying.

Sixth, Heart of Africa offered an extremely poor representation of the way missionaries, service or otherwise, behave while serving the Lord. Anyone outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints might be hard-pressed to discover anything worthwhile in our missionaries, based on the portrayal of Gabriel Ngandu and Jason Martin.

My conclusions regarding the film are not as positive as I would have liked. I’m sorry to say that it ranked quite low for me. Two stars out of five.