Not to be confused with the excellent documentary of the same name, Jean-Jacques Annaud's Black Gold in set in the Middle East at the very beginning of the oil boom. Yes, while you might think the west's obsession with Arab oil is a relatively new phenomenon, it actually predates the Second World War.
It was in the 1930s, to be precise, that Europe and the Americas began to appreciate what the Arabian Peninsula possessed while the Emirates realised they were sitting on a fortune that left the diamond mines of South Africa resembling a pound shop.
Adapted from The Great Thirst, a novel by the motor racing driver-turned-animal rights activist Hans Ruesch, Black Gold concerns the rivalry between Nesib, Emir of Hobeika (Antonio Banderas) and Amar, Sultan of Salmaah (Mark Strong). With a period of fighting having left Nesib victorious, peace terms are drawn up which ensure that neither man will encroach upon the Yellow Belt, a region of no man's land. Nesib also adopts Amar's sons, Salleeh (Akin Gazi) and Auda (Tahar Rahim),
to stifle the possibility of further invasions.
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