About the film

“We Come As Friends” is a modern odyssey, a dizzying, science fiction-like journey into the the heart of Africa. At the moment when the Sudan, the continent’s biggest country, is being divided into two nations, an old “civilizing” pathology re-emerges – that of colonialism, clash of empires, and yet new episodes of bloody (and holy) wars over land and resources. The director of “Darwin’s Nightmare” takes us on this voyage in his tiny, self-made flying machine out of tin and canvas, he leads us into most improbable locations and into people’s thoughts and dreams, in both stunning and heartbreaking ways. Chinese oil workers, UN peacekeepers, Sudanese warlords, and American evangelists ironically weave common ground in this documentary. If “history does not repeat itself, but rhymes”, “We Come As Friends” bares witness to this disquieting reality – it is a complex, profound and humorous cinematic endeavor - a tale of very old and rather sinister verses.