BLIND AMBITION

Reviewed by GREG KING

Documentary

Directors: Warrick Ross, Robert Coe. 

This documentary is a feelgood and uplifting and underdog story.  

Blind Ambition follows four Zimbabwean refugees – Pardon, Joseph, Marlvin and Tinashe – who fled Robert Mugabe’s repressive and corrupt regime to start a new life in South Africa. Some three million people fled Mugabe’s regime, many of them settling in South Africa. Archival footage woven into the film shows the horrors of Zimbabwe during the Mugabe regime, when violence and poverty were rife. 

Although the presence of these refugees was resented by many in South Africa, these four men started a new life working at menial jobs in some of Cape Town’s fanciest restaurants. They eventually worked their way up to the position of sommelier.  

They formed a team to represent Zimbabwe at the World Wine Tasting Championships in France, which is billed as “the Olympics of wine tasting”. To win the tournament the teams have to identify the wine by region, vintage and brand. The four were taken under the wing of restauranteur and wine expert Jean Vincent Radon who helped to hone their palate and their wine tasting skills. Then they gained another coach in the eccentric Denis Garret, a character who almost deserves his own documentary. But Denis has burned so many bridges in the wine tasting world that his presence with the team may mean that their efforts are doomed before they start.  

Their efforts to make it to France caught the attention of Jancis Robinson, one of the world’s foremost wine authorities, who helped establish a crowd funding campaign to raise the necessary funds to finance their journey. The four men mainly challenged the accepted conventions of the wine tasting world, which was usually the enclave of wealthy white men. They feared failing in their first wine tasting competition as they were competing against some much more established wine tasting countries like Italy, the UK and France.  

Blind Ambition is a story of resilience, determination, hope and it tackles issues of race, politics, immigration, ambition, and the love of wine. We get plenty of insight into the four men and their lives, their aspirations and their struggles. The film has been directed by Warrick Ross and Robert Coe, whose previous film was the documentary Red Obsession, which explored China’s love of red wine and their emergence as a key player in the industry. Ross and Roe follow the rigorous training schedule the four men underwent as they prepared for the tournament. The film has been beautifully shot on location in both South Africa and France by cinematographer Martin McGrath (Ride Like A Girl, etc).  

★★★