Africa United

Debs Paterson's film begins in Rwanda. Dudu, who lost his parents to AIDS, looks after his small sister Beatrice and organises football for the children in the neighbourhood. Among them is his closest friend Fabrice, whose dream is to play professionally for an African side. When word comes that the World Cup will be held in South Africa they set off, three thousand miles ahead of them. Almost at once they board the wrong bus, cross into the Congo, and with no papers are taken to a camp for child refugees. They escape and carry on, picking up other displaced children along the way. It moves like a children's adventure but does not soften the borders, the lack of papers or the illness, and it does not lose its cheerfulness either. Holding those two tones together is the real achievement of the film.