Rebelle

I attended a screening of this film at the Toronto International Film Festival. The director was there and spoke of the tedious process of getting his film released. I am not sure when it will be open to the public but I hope it can come out in a not-so-distant future because it's definitely a must see.

Rebelle is not for everyone. It's hard to watch and may be too much for some. But what's so terrible about this film isn't what is shown. It's what isn't. The story is about a 14 year-old girl, telling her story to her unborn baby before giving birth. It spans the two years preceding the opening of the film, when the girl was abducted from her village by the rebel army and turned into a child soldier. As every step, something terrible happens. But somehow, leaving the theatre, you simply know that in real life, it may have been even more horrible.

I won't spoil anything but as you can imagine, as she lives with the rebel army, she is forced to do unspeakable things. She is somewhat protected by the leader as he believes her to be a witch. Throughout the film, she has visions of the ghosts of people killed by the rebel army, including her own parents. It doesn't seem unrealistic or made up. It makes the film just this more bearable to watch, as we're let into the mind of a child and her ways of coping with the events around her.

She befriends another kid believed to have special powers, a boy barely older than she is. As their relationship evolves, you find yourself within their own personal haven, their escape from the atrocities of the life they are forced to live. You understand why child soldiers do what they do, how a human being can be turned to commit inhumane crimes. From their adventure together, you will laugh at times and cry at others.

It's really hard to write about this film without giving away anything. All the emotions you will feel watching time come from the characters around the kids and the small things that happen to them that give them the strength to go on. The 'butcher' may be the best character in the film. His kindness to the children, his understanding of what they have been though and his acceptance of what they have become is incredibly touching.

It's a tough film. A beautiful film. A film that stays with you long after you've seen it. Most of the actors hired had never acted before but they are all fantastic. Rachel Mwanza in particular is unforgettable. I hope she goes on to have a brilliant career because she was fantastic.

If ever you have an opportunity to see Rebelle, take it. You won't regret it.

When we think of African countries, many Westerners think of countries in the midst of bloody civil wars involving child soldiers, senseless violence, AIDs, etc. Our impression of African countries is one that we've learned from movies like Blood Diamond and from images presented by charities and documentaries with major press coverage like Invisible Children and the Kony 2012 campaign. The unintended consequence of these shocking images, presented for the heartfelt purpose of raising awareness, is this: the single story. We have a few images serving as one generic story representing an entire continent of countries and cultures.

The complexities, variations, and even just the common middle-class, everyday lives that exist in African countries are reduced to this single story: of starving, war-torn people waiting for the rest of the world to save them by donating a few dollars, or by buying a "buy one give one" pair of Toms shoes.

War Witch embodies the single story that many Westerners think of the "country of Africa" because we simply meld all African countries together into one homogeneous war-torn state. In fact, War Witch doesn't even differentiate which country or war the story represents. The setting is simply "Africa." The Beauty of War Witch As I watched the first few scenes of the film, the tragedy of the child soldier story quickly become apparent as the movie's story. I was initially disappointed as it is a story with which I'm already familiar. Luckily, the beauty of this film's simplicity also became apparent. Without much dialogue, we as an audience were able to suspend our disbelief and appreciate the supernatural aspects of the story as a child's attempt to cope with the tragedies she faces. We watch as she deals with death, separation, and heartbreak while she is haunted by ghosts of her parents. The ghosts aren't cheesy nor are they scary, they are simply haunting reminders that the soul of the main character is not at rest.

While the child conveys strength through each atrocity she faces, we as an audience are reminded by the white ghosts that she is not at ease. Title slides appear at different moments throughout the film and denote our young protagonist's ages throughout the film: 12, 13 and 14 years old. Displaying her age, rather than a date and time, reminds us of the innocence robbed as we travel with the main character through her struggles as she "forces tears back into her eyes." Were it not for these displays of her age, we would forget that the strength shown by the young woman is actually shown by a child. Nguyen excels at reminding the audience of this, in portraying the child's coping mechanisms through supernatural visions, and at having us witness tragedy without astoundingly gory scenes that, while they may be more accurate, would distract from our journey with the child.

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During African civil war, Komona, a 14-year old African rural girl, gets abducted by some brutal rebellious chaps and bears unbearable woes, along with an unborn war child in her miserable fate. Kim Nguyen, in his path of direction, seems brilliant with the treatment of children psychology in that inhuman environment. He beautifully represents the war-witch, Komona's romance with the Magician who was also believed to have some spiritual ability just like her. The way how Komona is forced to be mature in the cruel world at her early days and her mental conflicts during her pregnancy would play with our sentiments and emotions a lot. A deep melancholy tone flows throughout the film with narratives. Definitely an applauding pick of Oscar board (Y)___

There are already a few pieces of movies with the same core reference to child soldiers in Africa. They all had one thing in common - they showed us an overall birds-eye view of what child soldiering was like. This movie appeared to be steered in a different way. It is not an overall picture of things, but rather a personal ordeal told from a strong-willed girl.

Aside from some of the the wishy washy 'voodoo' and romance elements of it, there are many things worth pointing out from this movie. The key attraction is of course the fantasy side of things which artistically fit very well into the overall story. But ultimately it is a heartwarming story of survival.

The style used in this movie reminded me of City of God, not because of whether it possess the same style or the gore behind it (well it was not that gory), but the music used and the tone of the setting are unique in its own way.

I expected much more from "War Witch". After all, it was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar and is about a very important topic, children who are kidnapped and forced to serve in evil rebel forces in Africa. I've seen several documentaries about this (especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda) and the films have been absolutely heartbreaking to watch due to the evil being perpetrated by these groups (such as the Lord's Army). Yet, inexplicably, "War Witch" seemed far less hard-hitting and interesting.

When the film begins, the main character (later dubbed the 'War Witch') is narrating about her life two years earlier. An unnamed rebel group in an unnamed African nation comes on a small village and they kidnap the children (who looked about ages 10-14) and they forced these victims to murder their own parents! Then, they are taken to a rag- tag rebel camp and indoctrinated. The rest of the film follows this girl's adventures--such as her strange ability to see dead people as well as her ill-fated marriage.

Considering how tough the film began, I was really surprised that over time the film just seemed to fizzle and seemed to lack direction. The film SHOULD have been a strong indictment of the evil forces on the continent that rob children of their childhoods but it got lost, a bit, with the ghosts, white chicken, marriage and other distractions. My advice--see one of the documentaries instead, such as "Sewing Hope".