The Constant Gardener
Based on the best-selling John le Carré novel and from the Academy Award-nominated director of "City of God."
In the remote Turkana area of Northern Kenya, activist Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz), wife of Justin Quayle, is found brutally murdered. In flashbacks, we see them meet, marry, and fall in love; we follow her in the teeming streets and clinics of Nairobi, usually accompanying Arnold Bluhm, a Black doctor with whom she spent the night before her murder, and who, after robbers, is the prime suspect. Arnold Bluhm appears to have fled the scene, and the evidence points to a crime of passion. Members of the British High Commission in Nairobi assume that Tessa's widower, their mild-mannered and unambitious colleague Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), will leave the matter to them but they could not be more wrong.
Haunted by remorse and jarred by rumors of his late wife's infidelities, Quayle surprises everyone by embarking on a personal odyssey that will take him across three continents ending up back in Kenya, where it all began. Using his privileged access to diplomatic secrets, he will risk his own life, stopping at nothing to uncover and expose the truth - a conspiracy more far-reaching and deadly than Quayle could ever have imagined. A rally through corrupt pharmaceutical companies, members of AID programs and governments begins.
The film shows many inside pictures of the slums of Nairobi, the Turkana as well as the conflicts faced with neighbouring Somalis.
Being based on the novel of John le Carré, the film is not based on facts but the author himself said:
Nobody in this story and no outfit or corperation, thank god, is based on an actual person or an outfit in the real world, but I can tell you this, as my journey through the pharmaceutical jungle progressed, I came to realize that by comparison with the reality, my story is as tame as a holiday postcard.
Interesting Background Information:
- Director Fernando Meirelles lobbied to have the movie shot in Kenya (where the story is supposed to take place) instead of in South Africa (where most of the film industry is located).
- Ralph Fiennes held and operated the camera for Justin's point-of-view shots in the film.
- After filming, the Constant Gardener Trust was set-up to help the inhabitants of the slums near Nairobi where the crew had been filming.
- The scene where Tessa (Rachel Weisz) walks through the slum, numerous children ask her "How are you?" and she responds "I'm fine, how are you?" was unscripted. The children are actual children who live in Kibera and not extras.
- The novel was originally banned in Kenya because it depicts corrupt Kenyan officials.
- The makers installed water tanks, a new bridge and a classroom in Kibera, the slum at which the film was shot. They also built a secondary school in the desert of northern Kenya where the final scenes were photographed.
