There are many underlying international business principles going on in this movie.  You have one of your main characters, Tessa, is a female who is very outspoken and not respectful to the other countries cultural ways.  In the one scene at the banquet thing, she keeps trying to press on subjects that they clearly don’t want to discuss with her.  At one point, Justin is approached by his friend to keep her on a tighter leash.

You can also tell the cultural differences going on in the business world dealing with Tessa and Arnold’s relationship.  Everyone seems to have their assumptions that she is just a mistress or playmate of his and not really a business partner.  It seems as though most of the British and African businessmen just couldn’t accept the fact that women can actually be a strong force in the business world as well.  I could never actually tell if they were really fooling around or if Arnold was gay.

Another business trend you can tell is different internationally is that the Africans don’t deal well with confrontation or high context people.  Justin keeps trying to intrude in places he is clearly not welcome with out any help or back up from other colleagues and it keeps getting him in trouble.  It ultimately leads to him getting beat up, extorted, and in the end, dead.  Extortion is seen in this movie like it is in Africa, no big deal.  There are times when Justin is offered a bribe or extorted to give out information about his wife and her company she is acting for.  When he tries to pull into the African village, the kids come and stand in front of his car and make him pay a fee.

This movie is great for helping people understand how business goes on in Africa and how ignorant outsiders can be when dealing with them.  I think the Brits are a lot like representing us in this movie.  They are ignorant and don’t take the time to learn the other culture.