TLDR: _Africa Addio_ is a deeply hated Mondo "shockumentary" from the directors Jacopetti and Prosperi, who are either some of the most talented and misunderstood artists of all time or some of the worst scum of the earth depending on who you ask. **If you can handle it, you should watch it. It very well may change the way you see the world.** ==But don't watch the English language edition.==

You'll find on the internet a variety of criticism of the movie from people of all different perspectives, and no doubt that some of them felt the need to give this film a low rating as a result. This, it seems, is in large part because _Africa Addio_ is an incredibly difficult movie to watch. It is utterly terrible, the narration aiding the feeling of a _Planet Earth_-type scientific observer, detached from agency and forced into a state of absolute horror; the music and editing builds on that; it feels as if you're watching some school-age presentation about the history of some supposedly glorious empire but something has gone horribly wrong. It is worse than every horror movie ever created because the gruesomeness depicted is not obviously impossible, but has been already realized.

Nothing outside of pure psychopathy can make you feel nothing for this film.

This film received immense criticism and was legitimately under the threat of being banned in multiple nations because the events happening in Africa did not fit with the political/social mindset of the West at that time.* It still doesn't.

But that's just it, the film isn't politically charged, it's matter of fact. It has political themes, sure, Africa is being ~~decolonized~~ **liberated**, but that's just a part of the framing of the events. Explanation is given, as impartial and factual as if you're watching a _Planet Earth_ episode.

The message is that even actions that are (or seem) good or just, e.g. decolonization, can lead to unintended horror.

The best way to summarize _Africa Addio_ is really with part of the opening introduction from the narrator: "What the camera sees it films pitilessly, without sympathy, without taking sides. This film only says farewell to the old Africa and gives the world a picture of its agony."

==**The English-language edition should be avoided. Watch the original Italian with subtitles.**== The English-language edition changes the narration and edits out a majority of the political scenes so you don't know why/what is happening in front of you. Without that, you have every reason to hate this movie and no reason to like it. Search for _Africa Addio_ instead of the dramatic _Africa: Blood and Guts_ to avoid this.

*In fact, the filmmakers were sued for allegedly forging helicopter footage of an Arab massacre on Zanzibar. The footage was vetted though, and the filmmakers were acquitted.

AFRICA ADDIO (1966) is a difficult work to evaluate. Released at a time when most major media resources were focused on the Vietnam War, co-directors Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi were among a very, very small group of people documenting the unrest which accompanied the decolonization of Africa. More than 50 years after its release, this is still a brutally graphic film: human death is captured on camera, up-close and unsimulated; hippopotami and elephants are attacked with spears until they resemble living pin-cushions, only expiring after suffering prolonged and agonizing brutality; human remains litter rural fields and city streets like so much discarded waste. There are several scenes where the audio appears to be altered to present the on-screen activity in a manipulated context, which was a technique employed in both MONDO CANE (1962) and MONDO CANE 2 (1963). Charges that the filmmakers were actually complicit in staging some of the death scenes led to a court case in Italy, where they were eventually acquitted. But being critical of a mondo movie for employing deception is like being critical of a baker for employing yeast; it's one of the tools at the creators' disposal. Understanding that the mondo genre in general was more concerned with titilation and shock than in absolute narrative truth will go a long way in explaining why Jacopetti and Prosperi may have felt the need to alter already potent footage: they weren't aspiring documentarians, but rather talented grindhouse purveyors who found themselves in the right place at the right time.