5. Addio Zio Tom (1971)
One of the most lurid exploitation films of all time. Directed by those godfathers of the Mondo genre - Jacopetti and Prosperi, Addio Zio Tom raised new bars of sleaziness in Italian cinema. It calls itself a 'documentary' but it is all strictly re-enacted. It recreates the conditions African Americans suffered during the slave trade period in the US - and that involves a catalogue of violence, rape and torture perpetrated against black slaves by their white masters. Like its predecessor - Africa Addio - it is sumptuously shot and very beautiful but it is rather jaw dropping in its depiction of life under slavery. Its treatment of African Americans is insulting at best and race baiting at the worst. This is exactly how Jacopetti and Prosperi treated native Africans in Africa Addio. No black people have anything intelligent to say, and they seem to be portrayed as passive and deserving of their fate. Oh well I guess they had the good grace not to have slo mo shots of white South African girls jumping on a trampoline in their scanties in Addio Zio Tom. The film, in the end credits, gives credit to Papa Doc - dictator of Haiti where the movie was shot. I am sure the poor actors were paid very little - thus making Jacopetti and Prosperi members of an elitist, dictatorial, repressive system - exactly the kind of practice they were 'denouncing' in their film. A film that will leave you gobsmacked at the events portrayed within it, do not fall for this film as a sensible piece of cinema. It ruthlessly exploits a dark period of history in a cynical, sleaze mongering fashion. A period that should be treated sensitively gets full sensationalisation.