Nos amis de la banque (2002) User Reviews

Interesting look at the World Bank in Africa

[Andy-296 · 7/10 · 17 February 2007]

In an attempt to improve its public image, the World Bank allowed director Peter Chapell in the mid 90s to film its negotiations with the Ugandan government. The result was no propaganda outlet for the World Bank, since director Chapell sounds decidedly biased against them. Still, what one learns after this movie is what informed people already knew - that the international financial institutions micromanage the finances of many third world countries - many of whom are still appallingly poor decades after independence. But the advice the World Bank is shown giving to the Ugandan government doesn't sound necessarily bad - spending less on defense, for example, makes quite a lot of sense for one of the world's poorest countries. All in all, a very good movie, with an important subject - though not necessarily an interesting one for a large audience - subjects like third world debt and poverty are terribly important for the planet's future, yet they don't capture the attention of many people in the world, as they seem (incorrectly) to be an arcane area.