Black Gold Black Gold

On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930's, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no man’s land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amar’s two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his father’s land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.

Mark Strong Antonio Banderas Freida Pinto Tahar Rahim Riz Ahmed Lotfi Dziri

Doha Film Institute The

drama adventure

130 mins   More details at IMDb / TMDb

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  • David Jackola

    Review by David Jackola ★★★

    Day of the Falcon tries really hard to be a grand epic in the vein of Lawrence of Arabia. At first it suffers too much from the symptoms of modern filmmaking. The pacing is so swift that scenes have no time to breathe. Little time is devoted to capturing the sandy vistas. The movie is more concerned with getting to the next plot point. Moreover, the dialogue creaks under the weight of exposition. Should you suffer through to the second half the film finally finds its feet. As our hero comes into his own so, too, does the film. As he gathers an army, as he develops his strategy, the film builds in drama and theme. However good this tale of a contested stretch of oil rich land gets, it cannot elevate above Antonio Banderas' embarrassing performance as a mustache twirling sheik. There are riches to be reaped here but it doesn't amount to much.

  • moviemanc

    Review by moviemanc ★★½

    although an historical story it is still very topical yet the plot feels straight out of a 30's hollywood movie. If you cant see the whole plot in the first few minutes then you probably missed the first few minutes. Makes you realise how great Lawrence of Arabia is.

  • Hector Simpson

    Review by Hector Simpson ★½

    Zzzzz.

  • PictureshowMag

    Review by PictureshowMag ★★

    Black Gold is a bizarre beast. A multi-million dollar blockbuster produced outside of the regular means. Designed to usher in a new wave of mainstream middle eastern Cinema, Black Gold was largely funded by Doha Film Institute in Qatar and cost in the region of $60 million dollars.

    That money seems to have gone on a cast and crew with huge reputations in the cinema industry and spectacular battle scenes. Set in 1930s, Black Gold follows Auda (Tahar Rahim), a young Arab prince used in negotiations by his own father, Sultan Amar (Mark Strong) to try and bring peace between his people and those of Emir Nesib (Antonio Banderas). This peace treaty becomes disrupted when vast amounts of oil are…

  • Ferio

    Review by Ferio ★★★½ 3

    Esta película no es tan buena como podría serlo y eso nadie me lo niega porque en mi barrio es pelea y le saco la faca y los intestinos con ella. No es solo que a nosotros, que le conocemos de toda la vida, la interpretación de Banderas haciendo de jeque árabe nos suene a completo choteo sino que, más que personajes, esta película tiene un chorrón de estereotipos uno tras otro que se combinan de todas las maneras posibles para alcanzar un resultado bastante mediocre: el hijo fuerte y tonto, el hijo débil y listo, el hijo cínico y aún más listo, el jeque malo, el lider tribal bueno, los americanos codiciosos, la princesa pibón, la amante pibón, el…

  • Adam Cook

    Review by Adam Cook ★½

    It’s a real shame they didn’t go with the far better title - A Spaniard, Frenchman and Englishman walk into the desert...

    Black Gold is an old fashioned movie of sweeping deserts and melodramatic romance against the backdrop of historical and political turmoil. However, Lawrence of Arabia it ain’t (even if the score tries to ape David Lean’s inimitable classic) as this is leaden, poorly acted and lacking depth. Set during the birth of the oil boom in the 1930s, Black Gold focuses on a prince who is conflicted by his loyalties to his father and father-in-law.

    Director, Jean-Jacques Annaud, has a history of making well meaning but ultimately bland films and his latest fits in perfectly with the rest…

  • Iknow

    Review by Iknow ★★★★

    Una belicosa fábula infantil que va de menos a mucho más comandada por su gran banda sonora y luminosa fotografía.

  • scott gibbons

    Review by scott gibbons ★★★½

    war between 2 feuding men a settlement is agreed to set on peace, and how oil on mutual land raises tensions once more years later, looks great times and some nice action beats when needed,

  • Kevin Horsten

    Review by Kevin Horsten ★★★

    Antonio Banderas and Mark Strong put in some nice performances. Period piece of the 1930's, clans, arab princes, conflicts over land and riches... It's a very watchable movie.