Hotel Zimbabwe

Famine, torture and economic meltdown are abstract concepts. But everyone can relate to a pink diamond, one which becomes Djimon Hounsou’s last hope of saving his family from civil war in Sierra Leone. And who can forget Don Cheadle - the hotel manager who risked everything to save over a thousand Tutsis from death at the hands of Hutu militia in Rwanda.

When the smoke of Zimbabwe has dissipated into distant memory, who will revive its history? And more importantly, who will play Bob Mugabe in the inevitable Hollywood epic inspired by his tyrannical reign? No doubt screenwriters are working feverishly to incorporate 30 years of tumultuous history into a 100 minute film in which we may or may not get to see Scarlett Johansson naked. Will Bob’s unlikely death be the signal to start filming? Idi Amin had died ignobly in exile in 2003, long before Forest Whitaker dared imitate his despotism. It is more than likely that a deceased actor may need to be exhumed for the role of Robert Mugabe to help capture his indefatigable spirit. And thus Bob will be granted an impossibly extra amount of immortality so that the world may remember his Zimbabwe.