This movie is directed by Kim Nguyen a Montreal based filmmaker. It was released on April 16th 2012. The film was also nominated for Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. The movie is about a girl named Komona who narrates her tale to her unborn baby who is a product of rape. The movie shows atrocities through a child’s eyes. It was filmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The movie starts with a scene in which Komona a 12-year-old girl runs as she sees a group of insurgents approaching to her village on several motor boats. She was captured along with several other young children of her age and she was handed an assault rifle (AK - 47) and told to kill her parents by a rebel. She was unable to shoot them at first, then the rebel commander tells her that he will kill them with a machete which will be a more painful death. Her father tells her to do what the commander says and as a result she kills her parents. The commander tells her that she is now a rebel of the Great Tiger. She was taken along with other children to a forest where they are instructed and trained to become a rebel, use arms and kill government soldiers.
She is telling her story to the unborn child and she wants her child to know how horrible her life was over the last two years and she prays to God to give her strength so that she could love her child.
The movie conveys an uneasy tale of child soldiers in Africa. It is a difficult film to watch because it has some scenes that may disturb people and affect their mental health. The movie shows the journey of child soldiers who are taken away from their parents and turned into killing machines. The worst thing is that the children are not mature enough to realize what is happening with them and how they are brainwashed.
Watching a little girl like Komona survive through events which are nightmares for many adults is not a very easy task. Komona has a lot of courage to bear with all the atrocities she has been through. After killing her parents, she was told that her gun was her new mother and father. She was given ‘magic milk’ obtained from a tree which intoxicates her and eases her pain and hunger.
She has a supernatural ability to see ghosts who told her about the location of army soldiers and warns her of their presence nearby. The Great Tiger invites her to his place and names her his ‘war witch’ and gifts her an assault rifle with magical powers.
She had only one friend between the rebels. His name was Magician, he used to give her biscuits when she used to be hungry and they both decide to escape from the rebels. They get away and take shelter in the home of a butcher who is the uncle of Magician. The Magician falls in love with Komona and tells her that he wants to marry her. But she refuses and asks him to find a ‘white rooster’ and she will marry him only when he brings her a white rooster. The white rooster was impossible to find in the country. Her father used to say that he will marry her daughter to the guy who finds white rooster for her. The Magician somehow manages to find a white rooster and marries her. Their happiness didn’t last long as the Great Tiger sends his soldiers to look for his war witch Komona. They killed her husband and she is dragged back to the forest where she becomes a sex slave of a commander. The commander is a hateful man and he is the one who impregnates her. She plans a revenge and she runs away from the camp.
The workers under the Great Tiger are also seen segregating ‘coltan’ a black metallic ore used in mobile phones. It is also called ‘columbite tantalite’ and Congo is one of the leading producers of coltan around 60% of the whole globe. Coltan was also a source of income of the Great Tiger and he was very strict and punished the ones who stole it my burying them alive in the ground with only their head out.
Komona’s main desire is to return to the village where she killed her parents and bury their remains so that her child will be safe from evil spirits. He used to see horrific nightmares in which her parents haunt her. They advise her to bury them so that her child will not grow up being cursed. She finally tries to go to her village and on the way her child is born. She buries the remains of her parents and returns.
She also prays to God to give her strength to love her child and that she doesn’t throws her child in the water as soon as he/she is born because the child was the product of rape and the child will always remind her of the hateful commander who used her as a sex slave and raped her. She also mentions that her child’s face reminds her of the commander.
The movie reveals the world full of unspeakable atrocities and endless carnage through Komona’s eyes it also shows how the orphaned African children are kidnapped on daily basis and turned into a killing machine or a rebel after their village is decimated and parents slain.
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Review of the Movie ‘War Witch’.
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