Sand and Sorrow

Variety 8 of 10
Perhaps it will take a Michael Moore to ignite appropriate public outrage over the genocide in Darfur, but until then, docu helmer Paul Freedman's "Sand and Sorrow" will help fill the bill. Narrated and co-exec produced by George Clooney, the pic may not organize its information especially well, but with subject matter like this, structure seems less important than getting the message across. Combining interviews with campaigners, commentators and people on the ground, the docu seems best pitched for small screens and the kinds of school groups that have taken up Darfur as their cause...Pulitzer Prize winner Samantha Power is particularly good at cutting through the rhetoric, explaining how the debate was merely a diversion from action. A small civilian peacekeeping force posted to the region is allowed merely to observe, not protect, reducing them to straightjacketed witnesses to the rampage..."Sand and Sorrow" is punctuated with gruesome photos showing corpses horrifically disfigured and villages burned to the ground, meant to shock the viewer into action. As written, Clooney's narration begins a bit portentously, but settles into an appropriately earnest explication of the situation, calibrating disbelief with a controlled sense of emotional indignation. - Jay Weissberg