Review: Blind Ambition

A tense scene during the wine competition in France

The other day I saw a documentary called Blind Ambition, by Warwick Ross, the same director as Red Obsession, a film about the Chinese people's love of wine.

I had interviewed him in 2014 about Red Obsession and at the time it seemed like the topic of wine was a one-off, as his next project was going to be about more than 60 British, Chinese, Danish and Canadian intelligence, marine and naval officers eluded invading Japanese forces and left Hong Kong on Christmas Day, 1941.

But it seems Ross was sidetracked by another wine story -- about four Zimbabweans who formed a team to compete in a prestigious wine competition in France in 2017.

Ross has directed another documentary on wine

The remarkable thing about this quartet is that a few years before then, they had never tasted wine. They each left Zimbabwe under strongman Robert Mugabe who wrecked havoc on the economy, and came to South Africa to make a new life for themselves.

They separately started working in the restaurant business and were intrigued about wine, and eventually becoming sommeliers.

However, were they good enough to take part in the World Blind Wine Tasting Championship in France? They were about to find out.

Ross follows each of their stories of why they left Zimbabwe and how they got into wine, and also viewers get to find out how difficult this wine competition is -- the teams must identify the grape variety, the country the wine was made in, the producer of the wine and the vintage.

Through tasting and inspecting the wine they need to use a process of elimination to figure all this out. As a team they lean on each other's knowledge but also need to trust them in believing their hunch might be better than theirs.

Complicating the situation is Team Zimbabwe's coach Denis, a Frenchman who used to be one of the best wine tasters in the world, but has since lost his touch, who riles up their previous coach JV, another Frenchman who was diligently training the South African team.

The four are top sommeliers in South Africa

Wine expert and writer Jancis Robinson is Team Zimbabwe's champion -- helping start an online fundraising campaign to get them to France. She sees not only their potential, but also is excited by their eagerness to learn.

Nevertheless, other wine experts compare their challenge like Egypt having a team of skiers to compete in the Olympics...

The personal stories are so inspiring, and explains their motivations. One recalls being smuggled to South Africa in a container with not a lot of air in it...

In general the filmmaking is inconsistent, with some gorgeous overview shots of the chateau where the competition is held, along with the stunning natural scenery of Zimbabwe, while other scenes are literally shot as they happened, like the dust-up between the rival coaches, while the cameraman is seen reflected in the video call with the French coach.

In any event, Blind Ambition has great tension, not only with the wine competition itself, but also the personal obstacles each of them have gone through. It's an inspiring film that if anything gives insight into the lives of refugees and how we should give them a hand to help them achieve their dreams.

Blind Ambition

Directed by Warwick Ross and Ross Coe

95 Minutes