DTFF 2011 Coverage: First ‘Black Gold’ Reviews

Just as promised, I’m here reporting on the first reviews of Black Gold from the 2011 Doha Tribeca Film Festival. So far they seem to be good, although based on the reviews Freida Pinto doesn’t have that much actual screen time (even though she’s promoted as one of the big names in the movie). Read some snippets of the reviews below, more will be added as they’re published. Keep checking back for that!

“Themes about power and control permeate through Black Gold, with many of the characters willing to die for a land that was just thought to be a worthless desert. As the hero, Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) plays a prince torn between two fathers; his biological father played by Mark Strong (as incredible as it seems, he is a great Arab actor) and Amar, the man who raised him as one of his. Antonio Banderas​ is the star of the film playing the devilish Sultan Amar in a way that could remind you of the villain Jafar in Disney’s “Aladdin”. And of course, in the middle of this violent world there is a beautiful desert flower; a princess played by Freida Pinto​.”

Guest, HeyYouGuys.co.uk

“In this post-Edward Said era, things apparently haven’t moved from the fantasy depictions of Rudolph Valentino’s “The Sheik” (1921) and 1933′s “The Barbarian” with Ramon Novarro. Annaud has acknowledged using 19th-century orientalist painters as inspiration; the harem scenes with an underused Pinto could have been lifted from a Victorian tableau vivant, and not in a good way.”

Jay Weissberg, Variety