Review of The Children's War (2010) by Gina W — 02 Oct 2010

The Children's War: Life in Northern Uganda.

1 Disc DVD being released June 22, 2010.

"The Children's War" is a documentary film by Andrew Krakower that investigates a fratricide in the name of Christianity claimed to be led by infamous guerilla leader, Joseph Kony. In Acholiland, Northern Uganda, at sunset for the last 22 years, the LRA also known as the "Holy Spirit" has kidnapped, enslaved, raped, and forced compulsory enrollment upon 20,000 children to create an army to overthrow the government with the goal of ruling the country according to the Ten Commandments.

When originally setting out to make this film, Krakower intended to tell a story about the reversal of the HIV/AIDs infection rates in Uganda, but once there found the more chilling reality of the war in progress so he changed the focus of his film to bring this frightening tale to light.

This film contains the only interview with reclusive leader, Joseph Kony conducted by the BBC. According to him, all photographic evidence and the stories people tell about the atrocities committed by the Lord's Resistance Army are all propaganda and that not a word of it is true. He claims to hear voices and receive commands to do things and that people are being punished for not following the "Ten Commandments of God.".

At a running time of 64 minutes, this film exposes a shocking truth about the kidnapping of children, some of whom only six years old, who are formed into killing machines for the so-called greater good. After being abducted, the children are divided according to their education levels and then are sent into training. Once the allotted training periods are finished, the children are tested with raiding villages for food and people to earn a rank.

With all the raping going on, it spreads the HIV/AIDs virus until many children worry that they are "dead people walking." The problem of abductions has gotten so extreme that the parents send children away on foot at night in hopes that they will find safer shelter instead of being easy targets. They are called "night commuters" and they sleep in town on the street. Kony still remains at large despite a warrant for his arrest.

Bonus Features:

"Rakai" - Prior to his journey to Northern Uganda, the filmmaker Krakower and his crew traveled to Southern Uganda and spent time in an orphanage there where they collected footage of the children dancing and interviews with them about their school. Obviously quite a bit of time was spent in this region by the filmmakers before their film changed to focus on the tragedy taking place in Northern Uganda. By comparison all these children are very happy in general. Also included is a slideshow of still images from the film.