YMMV / Africa Addio

• Memetic Mutation: From the English dub: ''Wait, these aren't whites...they're Italians!
• Overshadowed by Controversy: In addition to allegations of having a pro-colonialist agenda, the filmmakers were accused of staging the execution of a Congolese Simba Rebel for the camera, leading to co-director Gualtiero Jacopetti being arrested for murder. While the charges were eventually dropped when documents were obtained proving that he and Franco E. Prosperi had arrived on the scene before the execution took place, the inclusion of fabricated footage nevertheless remains the subject of intense scrutiny.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • The film by its very nature could only have been made at the tumultuous height of decolonization the 1960s-70s. Its Mondo Cane-style presentation also dates it to the period, as it wouldn't have been made afterwards.
  • In the English cut, the somewhat memetic line of, "Wait, these aren't whites, they're Italians!" is something that seems patently ridiculous today, not so much back then in regards to Southern Italians as a holdover of early 20th century racial theories. Never mind that in the original Italian, they were let go because they soldiers realized they were Italian and not British, so they had no relation to their previous colonial masters and thus there was no reason to detain them.
• Values Dissonance: In addition to narration that can come across as racist and pro-colonialist (regardless of the creators' stated intentions), the amount of unsimulated animal cruelty on display would just never fly in today's societal climate.
• Vindicated by History: On the other hand, the film has to an extent found renewed interest for how, in spite of its sensationalism, it captures the birth pains of decolonization in Africa during the 1960s. That it contains, among others, rare footage from events such the Zanzibar Revolution and Congo Crisis that would otherwise have been lost to time further lends it some haunting historical significance. This was further lampshaded by Franco Prosperi, who remarked later on in life how the public at the time of its premiere "was not ready for this kind of truth."

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