The Ambassador movie review & film summary (2012)

He begins in Europe, using two brokers (who are apparently quite real) to line up phony diplomatic credentials from Liberia. He arrives in the Central African Republic, explaining that if the Congo was the "heart of darkness" in Joseph Conrad's words, the CAR is the spleen. There he and his secretary (Eva Jakobsen) obtain a translator and introductions to the minister of state security, relatives of the president and a diamond mine owner named Dalkia Gilbert. Again, all of these people are real.

Mads films them with hidden video mini-cams, which are concealed in walls, furniture, briefcases, clothing — who knows? Sailing through the first part of the film, I assumed it was a mockumentary, and the "hidden cam" footage was a special effect. No. I realized with a chilling certainty that the fearless Mads had actually introduced himself into this situation for the purpose of making this film. It is clear he could easily get himself killed, and the danger he faces is as riveting as the corruption he witnesses. Mads has whatever they call cojones in Denmark.

To cut to the chase: Everyone he meets is on the take, some from each other. Nobody's word can be trusted. He actually visits the diamond mine that he and Gilbert will exploit — to see if it even exists. Amazingly, it does. In South Africa, I visited an actual diamond mine owned by De Beers, a high-tech operation deep in the earth. In the CAR, young men and boys stand knee-deep in muddy water and shovel soil into a sieve to extract the diamonds. It's an open secret that diamonds would not be rare if their global supply were not ruthlessly curtailed by an international cartel. Diamonds from unsettled or war-torn nations move under the radar, and are known as blood diamonds.