Blood Diamond is a 2006 drama film co-produced and directed by Edward Zwick and starring Leonardo

DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and DjimonHounsou. The title refers to blood diamonds, which are diamonds
mined in African 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 1996-1999, the film shows a country torn apart by the struggle
between government soldiers and rebel 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, is in reference to an actual
meeting that took place in Kimberley, South Africa in 2000 and led to the Kimberley Process
Certification Scheme, which seeks to certify the origin of diamonds in order to curb the trade in conflict
diamonds. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Actor (DiCaprio) and Best
Supporting Actor (Hounsou).
Cast:
Leonardo DiCaprio as Daniel "Danny" Archer
DjimonHounsou as Solomon Vandy
KagisoKuypers as DiaVandy
Antony Coleman as Cordell Brown
Anointing Lukola as N'YandaVandy
Basil Wallace as Benjamin Kapanay
Kaap
Michael Sheen as Rupert Simmons
Stephen Collins as Ambassador Walker

David Harewood as Captain Poison

Jennifer Connelly as Maddy Bowen
Arnold Vosloo as Colonel Coetzee
BenuMabhena as JassieVandy
Jimi Mistry as Nabil
Marius Weyers as Rudolf Van De
NtareMwine as M'Ed
AtoEssandohas Captain Rambo

Mende fisherman Solomon Vandy (DjimonHounsou) is captured by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
rebels during a raid and subsequent massacre of his village in Shenge. Instead of cutting off his hands,
Solomon is enslaved to work as a miner in the diamond fields under the command of warlordCaptain
Poison (David Harewood), while his son Dia (KagisoKuypers) is conscripted into the rebel forces and
brainwashed into becoming a hardened, cold-blooded killer. The RUF use the diamonds to fund their war
effort, often trading them directly for weapons. One day, Solomon finds an enormous, pink diamond but is
caught by Capt. Poison as he secretly buries it in the ground nearby. Moments later, government troops
attack the mine and Capt. Poison is injured before he can get to the stone. Both he and Solomon are taken
to prison in Freetown along with the rest of the rebels.
Meanwhile, Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a white Rhodesian mercenary and gunrunner (from today's
Zimbabwe), is arrested attempting to smuggle diamonds into Liberia. Archer had been transporting the
diamonds to Afrikaner mercenary, Colonel Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo), his former commander in the32
Battalion, the most decorated unit of the South African Border War made up of Angolan and Rhodesian
soldiers and white South African officers. Coetzee is in turn employed by Tiara Diamond Company
executive, Rudolph Van de Kaap (Marius Weyers) and his deputy, Rupert Simmons (Michael Sheen). While
being held in the same Freetown prison as Solomon and Capt. Poison, Archer learns of the pink diamond's
existence.
Archer manages to arrange his own release from prison and also arranges for Solomon to be let go, hoping
that he will lead him to this valuable diamond. In the meantime, Solomon gets a job working at a Freetown
hotel while Archer visits his contacts in South Africa. While there, he meets with Colonel Coetzee who is
frustrated that their diamond smuggling deal was foiled in Sierra Leone. He informs Archer that in order to
make up for this loss, he expects to receive some of the profits from this pink diamond that Solomon has
found. When Archer says that he will one day leave Africa, Coetzee disagrees. He refers to a Shona legend
that the soil of Africa is red because of all the blood that has been spilled by people fighting over the land,
and implies that they will never leave Africa because Africa is in their blood.

Back in Sierra Leone, Archer locates Solomon and offers to help him find his family if he leads Archer to the
diamond. Suddenly, the RUF launches a massive assault on Freetown and crushes the government forces
present. Archer and Solomon steal away from the city at night.
In Forcariah, Guinea, American journalist and humanitarian, Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), allows
Archer and Solomon to sneak into Kono with her press convoy, in exchange for information for her story
exposing the flow of "blood diamonds" out of Africa. Archer provides proof that Van de Kaap controls the
market by illegally stockpiling vast amounts of diamonds to decrease the supply and keep the selling price
high. The press convoy comes under attack by the RUF and the other news team members are killed.
Archer, Solomon and Maddy narrowly escape and find their way to a Sierra Leone mercenary camp where
an attack force, led by Col. Coetzee, prepares to retake Sierra Leone.
Archer and Solomon leave the camp to trek through the jungle while Maddy boards a plane carrying
foreigners out of the conflict zone. Eventually, they reach Capt. Poison's mining camp, but Solomon is
captured while trying to rescue a brainwashed Dia, who refuses to acknowledge his father. Archer calls in
the coordinates to the South African mercenary force, also after the diamond, who launch an air strike via
an Mi-24 Gunship. Amidst the chaos, Solomon kills Capt. Poison with a shovel and the remaining RUF rebels
are captured. Col. Coetzee makes a dubious arrangement to split the sale with Archer, and threatens Dia's
life, forcing Solomon to retrieve the stone. Archer is then mortally wounded when he preemptively kills
Coetzee and two other soldiers, realizing they'll kill him, Solomon, and Dia once they get the diamond. Dia
holds Archer and Solomon at gunpoint, but, after an emotional talk, Solomon manages to convince his son
of his own retained innocence and Dia agrees to return home with him.
The trio flee from Coetzee's men and make their way from the valley towards an airstrip atop a nearby
ridge where Archer has prearranged to rendezvous with a pilot, Nabil (Jimi Mistry), in his GA8 Airvan.
Before they reach the ridge, Archer collapses from his wounds and hands over the diamond to Solomon,
instructing him to take it and use its profits for himself and the benefit of his family. Archer then holds off
the mercenaries as Solomon and Dia escape in the plane.
Bleeding and barely able to breathe, Archer uses a satellite phone to make a final call to Maddy and asks
her to help Solomon. Realizing that he will soon die, Maddy expresses her sorrow that she is not able to be
there with him in person. He replies, "That's alright, I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be." He grasps a
handful of red soil stained with his own blood, then dies peacefully as he looks out upon a beautiful African
landscape.
In London, Solomon meets with Simmons and arranges for his family to be brought to England in exchange
for the diamond. Simmons also pays him 2 million for the stone. Maddy secretly photographs the deal and
later publishes a magazine article titled "Blood Diamonds: A Trail of Terror from the Jungles to the
Jewellers" in which she exposes the trade in "conflict" or "blood" diamonds, detailing Van de Kaap's
criminal actions and ruining him and his company. Later, after admiring Archer's photograph in Maddy's
article, Solomon tells of his experiences at a conference on blood diamonds in Kimberley, South Africa. His
speech is met with a standing ovation as the film ends and the credits roll featuring the song "Shine on
'Em" by Nas.