Rebelle

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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¨We are rebels. Respect your guns. They're your new mother and father.¨

War Witch, also known as Rebelle, is a Canadian film directed by Kim Nguyen that has been nominated for this year's Academy Awards for best foreign picture. It is an enlightening film about the horrors that some children have to face in Africa when kidnapped by rebel forces. Nguyen, who also wrote the screenplay, did it in a very sensitive manner without relying on melodramatic or shocking moments. This is more of a sensitive drama focusing on a character study of a young girl's life when forced to kill her parents and join a rebel army. The harsh and violent reality of her life is softened by her innocence and supernatural mystic powers. The film combines these two elements in such a way that it makes the movie a much lighter and pleasant viewing experience. The addition of a sweet love story between her and one of the kids in the rebel army is what balances out the ultra realistic violence in her world with a touch of magical romantic moments, such as the search for the white rooster which gives the movie a much more lighter touch in midst of all the drama. The performance from Rachel Mwanza feels so real and authentic that it makes the film work as we see how this innocent girl's life changes as she becomes a woman in the midst of war. War Witch wouldn't have worked if it weren't for her unique portrayal of this character. This is a powerful film because there is no denying these things are happening in real life, and we need to put an end to this senseless brutality. Kim Nguyen does a great job with the direction of this film by adding some unique touches in the sound department, and the cinematography works really well.

The movie takes place in an undisclosed country in Africa where Komona (Rachel Mwanza), a young 14 year old pregnant girl, decides to tell her unborn child the story of her life. When she was 12, rebel forces raided her village and forced her and other children to murder their parents and join them. They were all given guns and prepared to fight for the Grand Tigre Royal (Mizinga Mwinga). She was the only child from her village to survive an early encounter against government army forces, after being warned by the ghosts of her parents to run. After this, she was considered to be a War Witch due to her mystical powers. She befriends another boy from the rebel army, who is also considered to have some sort of mystical powers and is known as the Magician (Serge Kanyinda). Together they decide to run away and hide at the Magician's uncle's home. He is known as the butcher (Ralph Prosper) and is very kind to the young kids who fall in love with each other. The Magician asks Komona to marry him, and she says that she can only marry him if he finds her a white rooster, which is extremely rare to find in that country. Despite the pleasant life she seems to be living, the ghosts still torment her, and after a brief moment of peace the rebels are back again to haunt her. Will Komona ever find peace in this senseless and brutal society she's living in?

War Witch is only about 90 minutes long, which was perfect because it could have gotten heavy handed if Nguyen had decided to expand the screenplay more. I really enjoyed that he decided to include this world of superstition in the midst of all the violence because it is a great part of the African culture which is left out sometimes. Despite the violent world in which Komona was introduced too, she also was able to find love although it was short lived. Nguyen found a perfect balance between this horrific world and the magical romantic one that Komona lived in. This will not win the Oscar, because Amour is a lock at this point, but it still is a unique film that is worth checking out if you 're into foreign films. I really enjoyed this film, although I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. It isn't groundbreaking, but is worth seeing for the story and performances alone.

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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".

In the harrowing, Oscar-nominated Canadian drama "War Witch," a young African girl is conscripted into a band of armed rebels, ordered by them to kill her own parents, then forced, along with the other children in her village, to fight against the government forces they're opposing. Because she seemingly has some sort of psychic visions of where the enemy is hiding in the woods (it's actually hallucinations brought on by a psychotropic liquid she imbibes from some local plants), she earns the position of personal "witch" to the chief rebel himself - a position that brings with it special protection as well (at least up to a point). But that's only the beginning of Komona's ordeal as she hooks up with an albino "magician" (the excellent Serge Kanyinda) with whom she tries to flee the horrors of the world around them.

And it is those very horrors - the nonstop terror and violence, and the ever present prospect of sudden death - that writer/director Kim Nguyen captures to such powerful effect in this film. Despite its occasional forays into the surreal, what one takes away most from "War Witch" is its unflinching willingness to confront the brutal realities of life for Komona and the countless others who share her predicament. Then there are the occasional acts of random kindness that allow hope to flourish even in the most horrible of circumstances.

And all throughout her ordeal, Komona must find a way to bury, both literally and figuratively, the ghosts of the parents she killed.

Rachel Mwanza is utterly amazing as Komona, and she richly deserved all the praise and awards heaped on her for her performance. Whether it's her heartbreaking narration to her unborn child or the understated way in which she reacts to and internally processes the unspeakable atrocities she both witnesses and is forced to commit, Mwanza embodies a much larger tragedy within the narrower confines of a single character.

It may be hard to watch at times, but "War Witch" provides an invaluable reminder of what happens when we send our children off to war.

This is not, by any means, a sophisticated film. It is slightly above amateur. There are two noteworthy exception first the acting of the lead actress and second a compelling story. It is the story of an African girl whose village is overrun by Rebels and then is forced to kill her parents and fight for these self same rebels. She is haunted by her dead parents throughout the film. First they warn her about the "government" soldiers who are laying in wait in the forest and then they begin to haunt her for not paying proper respect to their remains. This is the interesting part of the story, it mirrors Henry James's Turn of the Screw (in a simpler manner) and it is dynamically acted by the lead actress. The conflict runs throughout the film until she is ready to confront her burned out village and her parents remains.

The rest of the story is unsatisfying. There is a War Lord named Tiger who the script builds up to be important, but his character is never fleshed out. The same is true for all the other characters.

I watched it in its original language and then with the captions in English and much is missed in the translation. In other words the translation is really poor. I give it three points for effort.