Director Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai, Courage Under Fire) is making a movie, The Blood Diamond, that stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly, is set in Africa, and being shot in Maputo, Mozambique. Here is what a citizen of Maputo has to say about the impact the big production has had on the pretty seaside city:

I live in Maputo, and I have to say that the way the Blood Diamond filming was organized was not very pleasant for those who live and work in the city. I don’t believe this is entirely the fault of the production company - to a certain extent, they have gone through the procedures, such as they are, to get official permission for occupying large areas of the city for filming.

Unfortunately, in only one case did the police/city council give any prior warning to citizens - the result being traffic hell. Last week the main coast road was blocked, and yesterday one of the busiest junctions in the city was thrown into chaos because half of it was taken over by Mr. de Caprio being filmed in an old taxi cab. Even pedestrians were squeezed out - including street traders and stallholders whose only livelihood is from selling on that street, and have a marginal income at best.

Some of the runners from the production company (who shooed people out of the filming area) were quite polite, others were rather arrogant, appearing to forget that they disrupted our lives without any warning, consultation, or recompense. Meanwhile, the police (who are never there when you are robbed) were out in force to browbeat and threaten citizens who dared to stray off the pavement.

In terms of benefit for Mozambique, certainly a lot of the low-level staff, and some extras, were Mozambican. But all of the skilled workers appeared to be foreign (mainly South African). This is understandable, given that the skill-base in SA is much wider and deeper. However I do hope that the city council charged a reasonable sum for the massive disruptions caused, and that some of the money is spent on repairing the urban infrastructure.