GERMANY: Canadian director Kim Nguyen looks at the traumatic life of a child soldier in an unspecified African conflict through a young girl's eyes in "War Witch"

Record ID: 187133

  • Title: GERMANY: Canadian director Kim Nguyen looks at the traumatic life of a child soldier in an unspecified African conflict through a young girl's eyes in "War Witch"
  • Date: 19th February 2012
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 17, 2012) (REUTERS) ***CONTAISN FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** BERLINALE LOGO AT FILM VENUE PEOPLE ARRIVING ON RED CARPET FANS WAITING AT RED CARPET CAMERA FILMING AT READ CARPET RACHEL MWANZA WHO PLAYS KOMONA ARRIVING AT RED CARPET CAST MEMBER ARRIVING AT RED CARPET FAN TAKING PHOTOGRAPH WITH CAST MEMBER CAST AND DIRECTOR ON RED CARPET PAN ALONG CAST ON RED CARPET PHOTOGRAPHER (SOUNDBITE) (English) LEAD ACTOR, ALAIN BASTIEN, SAYING: "I mean it is overwhelming basically. I mean it is my first tim in Berlin, not in Germany but in Berlin, and to be here for the red carpet, for one of my main movies that i have been doing, I mean it is overwhelming and I see everybody here, coming and I hope they love the movie. I haven't seen it yet. I was waiting till the last minute to see it with the general public and hopefully the people before me really enjoyed it and i am here waiting to see my face on the big screen final!" CAMERA (SOUNDBITE) (English) 'REBELLE' DIRECTOR KIM NGUYEN, SAYING: "Well after working 10 years on this film, I feel that it is really something. It is a privilege to be here. For me it was really a life experience to learn about Africa and sub-Saharan Africa especially how the relationship with North America and sub-Saharan AFrica it was something for me that nourished me tremendously. So I am very happy to be here with my crew and my family." PHOTOGRAPHER VARIOUS OF CAST
  • Embargoed: 5th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany, Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVACR2YFPYQ8RYSMI7UF7HOSGKRW
  • Story Text: 'Rebelle' had its world premiere at the Berlin film festival on Friday (February 17), and is the last of 18 competition entries to screen. The annual cinema event, also known as the Berlinale, closes with an awards ceremony on Saturday.
    Director Kim Nguyen, who has been thinking about and working on the project for 10 years, said he had been told by a friend to film only what he knew.
    "Through the course of writing this script, I don't know why, but I could relate tremendously with this girl," he told reporters after a screening where the film was warmly applauded.
    "It's more about trying to talk about what you can feel rather than what you know."
    War Witch was filmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo and used a mixture of trained actors from Canada and Congolese newcomers, including the young female star Rachel Mwanza.
    She plays Komona, a 12-year-old girl whose peaceful life in a village is shattered when rebels arrive, kill most of her neighbours, force her to shoot her own parents and leave with a dozen or so child recruits.
    After surviving a jungle skirmish with government forces, Komona is elevated to status of "witch", meaning she is treated with respect by the rebels but is also chosen to be rebel leader Great Tiger's concubine.
    All the while she is haunted by the ghosts of her parents, who beckon her to lay their souls to rest if she ever wants peace. She falls in love with an albino rebel called Magician, a relationship that brings temporary respite from her suffering.
    Nguyen said he deliberately used non-conventional story-telling techniques such as the ghosts to reinforce the childish vision he wanted to create. "I decided that for this film I would go back to my roots, to why I originally came to film which is taking pictures and not having any preconceived idea what should happen in life, you know," Nguyen said. "And it was just a magical moment to go back to this living like a teenager and maybe I break my leg and maybe I get hurt stylistically but maybe I just go for it and see what happens."
    There is humour amid the barbarity of killings, executions and slavery, as when Komona sends Magician on a quest to find a white rooster if he wants to marry her.
    Laughed at for falling for the oldest trick in the book -- apparently there are no white roosters -- Magician nonetheless tracks one down, underlining a determination and heroism that marks him apart from the fighters around him.
    Mwanza, from Kinshasa, told a press conference that she was abandoned by her parents as a child and taken in by her grandmother, who then also sent her on to the streets when she could no longer cope.
    She appeared in a documentary film and gave the money she earned to her grandmother to pay for her education, but when it was used for other purposes she left for a refugee centre.
    "It's a kind of miracle, if I can put it like that, that I was kept on after the first film," she said through an interpreter.
    "Then I learned to read. I am very proud to be able to read now. I don't have a family any more, the people you see on each side of me are my family now."
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