War Witch

A Harrowing, But Oftentimes Unexpectedly Hopeful, Portrait Of Children At War
The idea of kids being forced into war and brutality is certainly a harrowing one. Many films, either directly of indirectly, have tackled the truth and unpleasantness of this unimaginable horror. These stories rarely qualify as entertainment but as something much more important. They make you confront humanity itself and face a world in which this is not only possible but commonplace. One of my favorite films on the topic is the little-seen "Johnny Mad Dog" from 2008 (although favorite might be the wrong word, maybe most impactful). This blunt force drama about child soldiers in Liberia is such an exhausting and disturbing experience, it has resonated with me even years afterwards. With the acclaim of Kim Ngyyen's "War Witch," I expected a similarly assaulting film. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of graphic violence and brutality in this examination of a young girl's life. But the picture also has a gentler and more hopeful side, even as its environment has little room...
Great film
I can't get it out of mind. It is such a gut wrenching story and I feel like I just spent an hour and a half in the Congolese jungles.
Gripping view of life in a war-torn land
****1/2

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...
Click to Editorial Reviews